Gatekeepers Encore
by Shar-dono
Summary: i've been very very bad and i hope to amend that. Chapter 8 rewritten to allow for changes in how the overall plot is going to go from now on. We finally find out what happened with the Gate of Genocide 10 years ago... chapt9: changes happen to AEGIS FE
1. Ending Theme: The Last of Spring

**Gatekeepers Encore**

Ending Theme: The Last of Spring   
       
       
        "Kageyama!" The boy screamed. "Why? Why! This isn't who you really are!" All around, cybernetic black shards shattered under impact, falling away, almost beautiful as they glistened. "Kageyama!" He cried, scarcely noticing the black-hole threatening to engulf them all. "KAGEYAMA!!"  
     He smiled. With all his plans and ambitions disintegrating around him, it seemed a strange thing to do. He smiled.   
    Ukiya Shun. Why wasn't he surprised it would come to this? Only a little. He hadn't expected it to be so soon. He could have used a friend like him. Too hot-blooded for him, perhaps, but a good man with heart to spare. Too much. So this is why they chose him for Captain.   
    He crooked his knee and with what he felt to be his last strength, kicked the fool back to earth. All around, a darkness drew him and his Invader troops in. How pretty, that perfect circle embraced in spiralling arms of the sun. How soft and warm the dark silence.   
    "Looks like you took a fall, Shadow." A voice laughed. Unsympathetic, unmenacing. "Or is that Kageyama Reiji?"   
    The Gatekeeper code-named Shadow cracked his eyes briefly, and fell back into a velvety recline. It was too dark to gather any detail, but it was oddly familiar and comforting enough, as were his companions. A cool hand brushed his brow and picked those huge sunglasses off.   
    "Had fun?"   
    "It's okay." He managed.   
    Someone snickered. "You incurable fool."   
    "There is... a bigger fool."   
    "Oh, really?"   
    Ukiya Shun. Shadow smiled. "Yes."   
    "You like him, ne?"   
    "Yes." He smiled. "It is very... interesting, being with him."   
    Questions satisfied, a small double circle opened over his brow, a gentle lulling rhythm of amethyst showering softly glowing sparks that sent him to a fitful rest with soft hands across his brow and a more firm, bemused raffle in his hair. 

*** 

    "I failed... again." Kurogane Megumi looked down at the unconscious form of her arch-rival, Ikusawa Ruriko, suddenly befuddled. "I hate you." She mused in her whispery murmur, "So why do I protect you?"   
    Shadow might have been blamed for it. They needed Ikusawa to open the Gate of Genocide, the forbidden Gate. That is... until their plans foiled. They... She, had failed. There just wasn't enough hate in the girl to rouse her to negativity. That, or she had failed to find any.   
    Mortifyingly dismissed, she had become, to the only person who saw and appreciated her strengths, a useless tool, a "weird woman". Trampled, again. Yet, none of that explained why she had instinctively thrown herself protectively over Ikusawa when Shadow's robot fell apart and the black-hole ripped open in the sky.   
    She couldn't go back to the Gatekeepers now, not shamed as she is and a traitor to boot.   
    "You're pathetic." She told herself quietly, still holding on to the other Gatekeeper.   
    And yet... and yet... She can't leave. No, she cannot. She needed to prove to them that she was better, than all of them. Any one of them. All of them together. Better, even than Kageyama. She'll show them... She had to... ... and to get kicked out now... "The shame..." 

    "You can do it."   
    What?   
    "You can become better than all of them put together."   
    Megumi looked up, eyes wide, watching a strange, blonde person -- it was impossible to discern if it was man or woman -- seemingly exit from the very solid leg of the Gate Robot.   
    "You are..." The only way that would be possible...   
    "You can be better than anyone at all." The stranger extended a hand towards her, inviting. He (She?) smiled, but his eyes remained cold. "The Gate of Life, the Gate of Shadow, neither will be any match for you. Not even the Gate of Ice. Come see."   
    "What..." Megumi gulped. "What do I have to do."   
    "Nothing, Megumi. Just trust me."   
    Megumi looked from her to Ikusawa.   
    "She will be fine," The Stranger said. "I promise."   
    Megumi stepped away, assured, at least, of that. The hand was cold. Chillingly so. Megumi shivered. What strange eyes, red and blue, static with promises of power and recognition.   
    "How do you know my name?"   
    "I know many things."   
    Something dark cycled behind them. 

    Ruriko woke alone. 

    In the excitement, no-one particularly remembered Megumi until she turned up again. It was assumed that she hid herself in mortification and little was said for that. they were too busy over Ukiya and being embarrassed around her for questions. It made her seethe a little. She didn't need any pity. Just like she told that stranger at the foot of the Gate Robot: "I do not want or need your pity. I can be strong all on my own. Save it for some other fool."   
    Like Ukiya Shun.   
    The boy was a wreak ever since. Kageyama told him too much, and not enough. He was constantly depressed now, haunted in every empty space by visions of the boy that turned out to be his nemesis Shadow, and Invaders.   
    "There is," He can sometimes be caught mumbling, "No hope for mankind." At times like this, he seemed a cross between Shadow and Kurogane Megumi. It was like that time with Fukuoka-sensei, except there was no-one to help him over it now.   
    Ruriko avoids him whenever possible, with embarrassed school-girl modesty. Megane worships the ground he walks on. Feye took her duties home to Shanghai, where Invaders still ran amok, more thickly than in Japan, after the 1970 Tokyo affair, as it had come to be called. Bancho and Kaoru barely noticed much aside each other. They made a cute couple, but that didn't stop them from being half-crazed barbarian maniacs. Reiko never noticed much, coming from a Gatekeeper who spends most of her time collecting souvenirs. Shun generally avoids everyone.   
    Japan was peaceful, on most part. The bulk of Invaders were vanquished along with Kageyama through the mysterious black-hole. What was left were random disorganised groups hiding deep underground, waiting for their chance to lash out again, albeit feebly. The glory days were over. The team fell into its own little pieces and drifted apart from each another. Life goes on. The season changes. Some things don't; like Ochiai-san's relationship with Shirei, still stagnant. Once a week Feye sends a postcard for everyone. Bancho hasn't managed to open his Gate a second time yet.   
    Megumi was... Megumi.   
    Stronger, now, in spirit and resolve. Thanks to Kageyama, she is on her feet and standing tall while everyone else slacked down. Wiser, now. To rely on someone else's power and recognition is to submit oneself to that power. The only way that could end is to become the other's tool. She knew this now. She will be strong, in her own power. She will suppress all of them without any help and then, no-one will be able to use her and everyone will just have to see how good she is. She trains, privately, readying for the day when she will overpower them. They wouldn't know what hit them. Only that she, Kurogane Megumi, has.   
    "Hmph. Pathetic blind fools." 


	2. New Opening: Omedetou, 1971!

**Gatekeepers Encore **

New Opening: Omedetou, 1971! 

    "Some people have too much leisure. They spend entire days on the roof and forget to go home for the holidays."   
    "Hn."   
    Megumi sat down on the concrete ledge next to where shun sprawled on his back against the slant of the stairwell-attic roof. She unwraps her lunch in silence and dines quietly, giving no further acknowledgement to his sulking presence.   
    It was the first day of school after the New Year break. She was glad to be back in school. Holidays are always hectic at her place, where her parents run a ramen shop and demand she help with deliveries and all that.   
    A hand hovered over her lunchbox for a tidbit and got a sharp rap for its trouble.   
    "Ask." She mumbled resentfully.   
    "Gomen." He puts the inari piece in his mouth with as little thought. Chances are if you asked him what it was he just said and what he'd just put in his mouth, he wouldn't have been able to answer you.   
    "Idiot."   
    "Hn."   
    They were third-years, now. The finals would be here soon. Then graduation and college. She'll get in a better college than Ikusawa. She was sure of it. There, people will appreciate her more. Talk of self-sufficiency aside, it was still her secret desire to be noticed and noted.   
    "Oh, look. There's a monster flattening the city."   
    "Cool."   
    "… … baka."   
    Silence.   
    He was as good as brain-dead.   
    Oh well. At least he isn't freaking out over Kageyama and the Invaders today. Really. They ought to just lock him up.   
    Only the two of them ever come to the roof anymore. All the better. Ideally she would like to have the space to herself, but since Shun mostly just sulks and does nothing, he was easily ignored. At times, you could even take him for some bizarre statue.   
    Ah, peace.   
    She liked the wind in her hair, sharp with the frost of Winter.   
    They just _had_ to ruin it with a P.A announcement for the "Special Committee".   
    "Hn." Megumi packed her lunchbox and stood up. Shun remained stoned.   
    "Come on."   
    It took some rather physical efforts to get him up and down to the AEGIS base, but she managed.   
    "Pig. Block of wood. Brain-dead. How do you even bother staying alive? Such a nuisance…" 

*** 

    "Will you leave the poor boy alone?"   
    "But it's fun! He's turned into a rock, I think. Look, there's some moss…"   
    "Shh."   
    All eyes went to the TV.   
    "Whoa!"   
    "Masaka…"   
    "Invaders." 

*** 

    "Kaidenpo was detected earlier at this location…"   
    "That's…!"   
    "The TV station."   
    "That's right. They've captured the site. Only the AEGIS agent made it out."   
    "K'so!! Despicable! I, Bancho, will not let them get away with this!"   
    "This is…" Ruriko faltered. "This is the biggest attack since…"   
    "That's why I'm sending all of you this time."   
    "Yes! Let's go! We can't let them get away with this!"   
    "How right you are, Kaoru-hime!"   
    "…Monkeys."   
    "The people there look really in trouble desu…"   
    "Gatekeepers, move out!"   
    "Ryokai, AEGIS!"   
    "… …"   
    "Sugoi… This is just like the old days."   
    "Shirei…"   
    "Come on."   
    Megumi resigned herself to the degrading job of hauling an inert Ukiya Shun and protesting Ikusawa Ruriko along. "You are Gatekeepers, not babies. I shouldn't have to baby-sit you two. Earth Defence soldiers. Haha."   
    "Megumi-chan…"   
    "Move." 

    It is 1971, the 46th year of Showa. Japan is in a period of high economic growth and enjoying rapid development. However, most people are unaware of an unknown enemy wriggling in the darkness… actually, most of the Japanese people know. They just don't know what they are or how they got here or that they are still around.   
    Similarly, they have a vague concept of a special group of High School students who supposedly protect them from these "Invaders" and the AEGIS organisation they belong to, but not who they are or what it is exactly that they do. It protected what little of an ordinary life they had. The lack of media coverage soon killed off most of the excitement surrounding the party. They could now almost pass through the streets unnoticed, like retired heroes.   
    They were far from retiring, of course. The bus screeching its way across town was sure enough sign of it. Bancho, prowl-figuring the bus, got thrown off the minute they stopped and immediately turned on the driver, Megane.   
    Megumi paid them no attention, instead looking to the Invader composite. There were two types of Invaders that combined to any number of formations and operate as one unit commanded by the red Core. The one they were now faced with took a variation of a familiar form, a sinewy snake like thing with a vivid red broadcast dish on the end, twined on the scaffolding of the largest broadcast tower. It wasn't as big as some of the monsters they have seen. The Cores, it seems, were having trouble finding help.   
    Kaoru didn't wait to start the show, bounding off the bus and hurling, with the help of her Gate powers, the scrapped remains of a smaller broadcast tower at the evil villain. She missed and it impacted the Invader's trellis, dislodging debris on the helpless hostages at its foot.   
    "Never uses her head…" Just as the hostages screamed, expecting to become hostage-pancake, a green dome came up around them with the consistency of jell-o, catching and slowly guiding the metal pieces to the ground. Megumi smirked. She was good.   
    Ruriko exited, racing to get within range. Bancho went with her and headed for the Invader's tail, obviously hoping to scale it, for whatever reasons. Ruriko aimed. Kaoru found more pieces of debris to throw around. Reiko, in her usual enthusiasm, started to play. The Invader swayed, like a mesmerised cobra. Unfortunately, that helped it evade Ruriko's volley. Shun stayed in the bus and stared out the window. "What's the point. There'll just be more of them. And we created them…" Not that anyone was listening to him.   
    "Disorganised blockheads, like a bunch of headless shrimps trying to find their tails. Some kind of heroes that forget about their hostages. Brainless musician, can't even control her own power or consider the situation, doing more harm than good. How you managed to save Japan is incomprehensible…" From her perch on top of the bus roof Megumi saw clearly a second red spot writhing around in the midst of dark Invader bodies. A second Core? Since when did composites have more than one Core? She slipped down the side of the transport and walked in.   
    "Asagiri-san, Megane, go help the hostages." You would never have guessed the stiff acting in those self-assured words. She had been mumbling those lines since on the roof. They were so firm, so steady, so Ikusawa Ruriko.   
    "Huh? Release the hostages desu?"   
    "You're just pretending not to hear me. No, of course you can't. You've got cotton wool stuffing in your head for brains… Yes, go get them out."   
    "Oh, okay, right away…"   
    "Talk less, move faster." Stupid fools.   
    "You know, we are the real source of it… us, people… Gatekeepers…"   
    "Urusai." 

*** 

    "This blows. What the hell do they think they're doing down there? Comedy?"   
    "Oh, don't laugh at them. It's mean."   
    "Damn! I should be down there kicking ass!"   
    "And stop being so violent."   
    "You two can't just watch quietly, can you." 

*** 

    "Worthless bugs, just like Kageyama said…" The Gate-Engine was useless, being on the bus and seeing as how it couldn't get close enough to the Invader. Megumi walked up to the site and started scaling her way to the roof where the Invader's scaffold support was fixed, mumbling angrily all the way. "You never see how good I am even when I'm doing most of the work. I should just leave all of you to die…" 

    "Reiko! Megane! What are you… It's dangerous here! Oh…" Ruriko paused and realised, with mortification, that she had forgotten all about the hostages, too distracted with the Invader. What kind of Earth Defence soldier is she? How could she forget about the hostages? Ruriko no baka! She joined them as soon as her reverie broke, covering the two while they reached the green-shielded civilians. Megumi removed her shield and pulled herself up, breathless, to join them on the ledge.   
    "Hai, douzo, don't rush, watch your step please… oh! Are you okay?" Reiko would have made a great mall elevator operator.   
    "Senpai! Hurry!" Megane ran around, trying to hurry people along, deathly afraid of being noticed and crushed by the Invader.   
    Ruriko was daunted. The Invader was too fast. The Core always dodged her bolts, so that all she managed to do was take inconsequential pieces out of the rest of its snake-like structure while it continuously recalibrated to get thinner and repair the holes. Kaoru and Bancho hanged on to its back. There was no way she could do this on her own. Ukiya. Where was Ukiya? She started to panic. Someone sniggered quietly behind her. She jumped.   
    "You will just stand here and wait to be crushed?"   
    Ruriko shuddered, still spooked to be at close proximity to Megumi, but bravely, for her sake, tried to hide it. "Ukiya-kun wa?"   
    "Don't bother. He's in the van."   
    "Senpai! Ikusawa-senpai!"   
    It was Kaoru. She had made it to the top and now rode the serpentine thing like a rodeo, clinging on for dear life to the red dish, wrestling it to still. "Hayaku!"   
    Ruriko looked around, suddenly realising that Megumi was gone. Kaoru! Ruriko startled and notched an arrow. "Hikarinoya!"   
    The Invader bulked and threw Kaoru over. She screamed, echoed by Bancho's distraught "Kaoru-hime!"   
    "Please let it hit, oh please, let it hit…" Ruriko screwed her eyes tight, praying, afraid to watch. 

    Megumi looked up at the red and black thing and couldn't resist a tremble at its eerie uniform patterning of shades and suits. It was as if they were all watching her, waiting for her to slip up. Her knees grew weak. She shook herself. "The Invisibility Cloak works fine." Of course it does. She made it. She was good. Yes, but was she good enough? One wrong move and…   
    "You can do this. You've done this before. Just like training." She steeled herself and put out her hand, ready. The moment of reckoning. A year of secret intensive training for this. Yes. "Here goes."   
    "Are you sure?"   
    All of a sudden, she was looking into unpleasantly familiar red-and-blue eyes. She paled for a second.   
    "Omae… iya! I can do this. You can't trick me into being used again." Green circles glowed in her eyes. The blonde Stranger stepped aside. A flash of red skittered by, quick, but not quick enough for her.   
    "Geeto Open." 

    "No!" Ruriko screamed at the missed bolt. Two more shots! That's all she had left, how could she miss? Hang on, was that… Megumi? How? When?   
    "Ikusawa!"   
    It _was_ her. A green globe glowed amidst the Invader body, capturing a red Core. The perfect target. Nani?? A second Core? The dish was still there, still lurid.   
    "Ikusawa!"   
    No time! She notched the arrow and let fly. Last bolt. She needed to make both count. She prayed.   
    "Senpai!"   
    She whipped around, just in time to run into the arms of a blood-red cybernetic suit. 

    "Ikusawa!" Megumi screamed, scrabbling out of the way. The coils came down on her. She wasn't quick enough after all. The moment the Gate opened, they had located her and she lost grip on the shield that rendered her invisible. She stumbled, tripped, stumbled, "Ikusawa!" It was now or never. She screwed her eyes tight shut, desperately trying to put up an Iron Wall, doubting if it would hold… Green light. Yellow light. The Invader coils dissipated, suddenly, into a shower of green crystals on her shield.   
    The rest of the Invader screamed.   
    Megumi opened her eyes and looked around. "No… not failure again… I will not fail here. This is… This is…" She cursed their luck. Megane, Reiko and Ruriko were caught by a squadron of Invader infantry, now distorting, ready to crush them between themselves. The hostages were nowhere in sight. The Invader over her squirmed and changed shape, four-legged, tower like, smaller, but just as deadly. Worse. They knew she was there.   
    "No… I will not…"   
    "Is this the best you can do?"   
    The red Core dish swooped down face to face with her.   
    "IYA! I am better than anyone else! Geeto!"   
    Her green, triple-ringed circle opened. Power shot forth to engulf the Invader Core. The rest of it writhed to get her. Then, something happened.   
    She wasn't sure what, but it seemed as though the light of her gate was refracted outwards and intensified with a touch of orange. She had hoped only to take the Core, but the mould that would freeze the Invader in place took the whole construct.   
    "Good girl."   
    She looked, but there was no-one there.   
    The sky opened a perfect circle, a small black-hole that distorted the light and clouds just over her head, not unlike the one that took Kageyama and his Invaders, letting through an ashen arm adorned with heavy gold and silver bangles. The finger traced a black circle on the Invader Core and the collective shuddered and shattered into a million crystal shards with a swirling motion, as if something had sucked it dry inside-out. The vision vanished.   
    Over the ground troops, confusion ensued. Then, snow, unseasonal, drifted gently over them and started freezing them, literally, to the ground. In their panic, they made the fatal mistake of releasing their hostages. With the last shot, Ruriko took out the Core that had dared lay hands on her. The company collapsed, lending their shower of crystals to Yukino's entrance.   
    Megumi closed her eyes and slid down to the concrete with a soft sigh of relief, although why she should feel relieved for them is doubtful. They will just forget about her and everything she has done today and even leave her here if she didn't go down to join them soon. Megane and Reiko and Ruriko were busy celebrating Yukino. Bancho came round the buildings carrying Kaoru despite her protests of well-being. "Of course she's okay. I made sure of that." Not that anyone cared, of course. "Fine. Leave me here. See if I care. Hmph." She could always go to them, but there was no way her body was going to co-operate with her any more today even if she wouldn't admit it. She leant back against something and closed her eyes. "That's right. Forget about the ugly geek that saved your miserable lives… The real heroes are the smart, rich, pretty people like Ikusawa Ruriko. It's always that way…" 

    "Kurogane-senpai? Did you say something?"   
    Huh?   
    Megumi opened her eyes, shocked to find Kaoru bending over her.   
    "No… nothing."   
    "Daijoubu ga? Can you walk?" The younger girl was already hauling her on her feet. Megumi blinked dumbly. "Senpai, you're bleeding…" Is she? She hadn't noticed. It was just a nasty scrape on the outside of her calf… "Here, let me help you."   
    The world's ending.   
    "You're just pretending to care. Why should you…"   
    "Huh? What did you say?"   
    "Betsu ni." 

    It was still, of course, Ruriko's moment.   
    "Senpai was so cool!! She saved us all!!"   
    "Iya, it wasn't like that… anno… not at all… please stop it…"   
    "Liar. You love it. You want to be the hero even though you know you're not. Fraud."   
    "Ne, Kaoru-chan, you're getting it all wrong…"   
    "Senpai! You're my saviour!"   
    "I… I……"   
    "Okay, Kurogane-san. Please take care and remember to keep the wounds clean and dry or they'll scar."   
    "Not that scars on an ugly geek makes much of a difference."   
    Megumi got off the bed as Ochiai-san packed up the first-aid equipment. The party, sans Shun, had packed themselves in the Nurse's office, eagerly recounting what happened to the Ma'am Secretary. Exaggerating everything and forgetting she was even there. Typical.   
    "Sou desu…"   
    Leaving them to make whatever they will of the day, Megumi went back to class. Lessons were over, so she had a wonderful moment of respite in the dark solitude of the room, packing her bag. She paused slipping her pencil case into her bag and looked out the window. Ukiya's seat was cleared. He would be on his way home already. Maybe she should tell them about the black gate and the stranger with the red-and-blue eyes. Maybe not. They wouldn't be interested in any of her stories. Her thigh throbbed. There was far too much work involved today.   
    She almost walked into Ruriko in the corridor as she left.   
    "Watch where you're going."   
    "Gomen."   
    That look on Ruriko's face, however, was worth everything.   
    She stored away, darkly triumphant, Ikusawa's guilt. 


	3. Staccato: Shattered Moment

**Gatekeepers Encore **

Staccato: Shattered Moment 

    Across Tokyo, a strange programming was broadcast. It was harmless on most part, but in every neighbourhood, one or two complained of migraines and a ringing in their skulls afterwards, telling them to "return to their true self."   
    Disturbances were accredited to a freak electrical accident at the station. 

    Ukiya Shun stared at his smooth, white ceiling. The look on Rurippe's face on replay: disappointment. Pain. Why weren't you there, Ukiya-kun?   
    The curtains to her room fluttered and stayed closed. They haven't opened since his recovery from that fight with Kageyama, as though she couldn't bear to look at him. She has been avoiding him a lot these days, too.   
    Kageyama… …   
    He screwed his eyes tight shut, but images of the blonde boy pried their way between his lids. Smart, popular, terrific at everything he does, with everyone he meets. Images of a little blonde kid, a joy to all around him. Cruelly disposed of. If there was some way… if only there was some way… Kageyama.   
    "Evil is evil." He thought aloud. He had helped him over that. It seemed so far away, long ago, now. "De'mo… what, who is the real evil?"   
    I can't fight anymore, Kageyama-kun.   
    Help me.   
    What should I do? 

*** 

    Megumi looked up from her book. Special Committee meeting again. Bother. First thing in the morning, too. She changed course and prodded along, sticking her nose back in the book. Kaoru and Bancho whizzed past. A listless Shun caught up with her.   
    "Ohayo, Megumi-chan."   
    "Ohayo. What do you want."   
    "Ne, Megumi-chan…" He faltered, the burning question in his chest found no words to be heard. She looked at him patiently, for about the space of three seconds.   
    "There's no crying over spilt milk." She muttered. "But if you feel you are unfit to be Captain, why don't you resign."   
    He thought about this as she disappeared down the chute between some cabinets. 

    Shirei was sterner than usual. Ruriko flinched under his piercing gaze.   
    "…The Invaders are getting smarter. It seems that they are learning."   
    "Smarter… or we are getting dumber."   
    "…As you can see," He indicated the images now pulled up on the monitor, "The are getting more cunning and deceptive."   
    Ruriko blushed, remembering the "hostages".   
    "…They appear now to be more highly evolved, resilient and versatile than before…"   
    "Multiple Cores. That's how they do it. Teamwork." Megumi felt smug about figuring that out, but was quickly slapped down.   
    "Yes, teamwork." Shirei glared around the table. "I am very disappointed in you, Gatekeepers, yesterday's battle was very nearly a disaster. You were careless and forgot you were part of a team."   
    "Shirei…"   
    "But I didn't forget. I won't be blamed for other people's short-comings."   
    "Although the Invaders were apprehended, you have failed the Organisation with your inefficiency…"   
    "No!" Megumi jumped to her feet. "I can't accept this! Shirei! Shirei, you must see. You must know I am not like them…"   
    "Megumi-chan…"   
    "Kurogane-senpai…" The table watched her in shock and pain. Various expressions of guilt and disbelief assaulted her, and one gloomy thoughtfulness. Ukiya Shun could have been on another planet altogether.   
    "I won't let your failures hinder my performance! I… I didn't fail! Shirei!"   
    Ruriko looked down on her hands. Reiko blinked.   
    "Oh dear… …"   
    "Senpai…"   
    "I… I…" Her throat closed. Hot stung her eyes and she hated herself for that.   
    "Megumi-chan."   
    The inert Captain kicked into action. She let him push her back in her seat as he stood up.   
    "I am the one to blame, Shirei, minna. Nobody failed anyone yesterday. Iya, it was me. I failed you. Gomen."   
    "Ukiya-kun…"   
    Shun shuffled his feet.   
    "I have failed my duties as your Captain and a Gatekeeper." He went on. "Shirei, I wish to resign from the Earth Defence Organisation."   
    "NANI??!!"   
    "Senpai! You can't!"   
    "Ukiya-senpai!"   
    "Arara, taihen desu…"   
    "Ukiya-kun!"   
    "… So, you'll run away. Just as expected. Great Captain Ukiya. Hmph."   
    "Ukiya-kun!"   
    "… …"   
    The head of the table remained aloof as Shun dug in his pockets and surrendered his Gatekeeper Identification, the Earth Defence Organisation licence in an act of finality.   
    "I am afraid I cannot accept this, Ukiya-taicho."   
    "Do whatever you want." Shun replied quietly. "I'm through."   
    "Ukiya-kun!!"   
    "Senpai!… Ikusawa-senpai, go after him!"   
    "Ha… hai!"   
    "Chotto matte desu…!"   
    Shirei watch the room empty and sighed. By remote control he flipped the image on the screen to a zoom of yesterday's battle, where a black-hole let through a pale arm adorned with gold and silver bangles froze over Megumi's head, an out-stretched finger tracing the beginnings of a dark circle.   
    First this, now that.   
    "Gatekeepers," He said to himself. "Be strong." 

*** 

    Ruriko knew she should go out there and drag Shun off the roof, but she couldn't, she just couldn't face him. Instead, she paced the line that was Kaoru, Bancho, Megane and Reiko.   
    "Senpai…"   
    "Forgot your keys?"   
    "Kurogane-senpai…"   
    She ignored the young athlete and held out Shun's identification to Ruriko.   
    "Give it to him."   
    Ruriko hesitated.   
    "I… I can't, Megumi-chan. He doesn't…"   
    "Hmph."   
    A year ago, she would never have been able to see herself doing this. Now, she was stronger, different, as she took the last flight of stairs the others couldn't take and opened the door they couldn't open. 

    Shun hung over the railing, blank-faced. He felt light-headed, empty, even, without his AEGIS Gatekeeper Captain identity.   
    "Is this it. The best you can do."   
    "Go away. Nobody understands."   
    "Understand what? We are fighting the same thing, remember."   
    "No, you just… can't understand, okay?"   
    "Look at yourself. This isn't the Ukiya Shun that defeated Kageyama. All I see is a weak fool who couldn't have stood a chance. I won't accept this. Neither would he."   
    "Don't mention him!" He screamed, and immediately regretted it.   
    "Kageyama? Why not. He used me too."   
    "I…" He turned, finding his pain mirrored in a fleeting expression on Megumi that was almost soft. "Gomen, Megumi-chan… It's just… you don't know him like I do."   
    "That ought to be my line."   
    "No, that's not…"   
    "I know about Mitsuoka Yuji." She shrugged. "AEGIS records."   
    "They'll just keep coming."   
    "Then we'll keep fighting."   
    "We created them, you know. A Gatekeeper, from human desires…"   
    "But we are better. At least, I am. I don't know about you or the others."   
    She threw something at him. It landed on the concrete with a hard slap.   
    "They are waiting for you behind that door. I have better things to do, but it doesn't look like they'll leave until you come down."   
    Having done what she came to do, she turned to leave. Shun stared at the card at his feet and slowly picked it up.   
    "Megumi-chan."   
    She paused.   
    "Do you… do you think he's still alive?"   
    A thoughtful silence. Megumi didn't look back.   
    "Does it matter."   
    He had no answers. She left. She had better things to do. He stared at the card. Earth Defence organisation, huh? There had been a time not so long ago when he was proud, excited to be part of the secret alliance. AEGIS. Gatekeepers.   
    "But I can't fight anymore…" He told himself helplessly. "I can't…" The laminate bit into his palm with his shame.   
    "_If this is not the end of Oblivion, then I shall live every day as if my life were to end on this very day._"   
    He could feel the snow melting on his back, but he wouldn't face her. Not anyone. Not now. 

*** 

    "Tea, Shirei?"   
    Ochiai-san watched Shirei pour over the spread of documents on his table. Folders, files, printouts and old photographs. He was unusually tense, which made her nervous, in turn. Now he swerved back in his chair and held up a black-and-white picture yellow with age to the monitor. He stared at it, losing himself in thought.   
    "Ochiai-san, do you remember… Oh, right. That was before your time."   
    It was a picture of three girls in uniform, posing in front of the school gate, their fingers uniformly forming the AEGIS v-sign.   
    "Ochiai-san." He put it down, snapping back to reality command. "Do we have any documentation from the late 1950s?"   
    "1950s? I'm not sure, Shirei. Weren't most of them destroyed?"   
    The man winced, forgiving her light mention of the matter for ignorance. It was before her time in the organisation and the circumstances that led up to that disaster were seldom mentioned.   
    "I am aware, but I need whatever you can find."   
    "I'll see what I can do, Shirei."   
    1950s. She has heard snatches about it, although she was never sure of the exact events. Ochiai-san wasn't a gossip type person. It might have been early 1960s, though. She couldn't be sure. Apparently it was when the base was first established here. There had been an invasion of some sort that destroyed much. Thankfully, the infrastructure was mostly intact afterwards and rebuilding, although painful, was not as slow as feared. What if…   
    "Ochiai-san?"   
    "Ha… hai! Gomen nasai!" She mental-boxed herself for wandering off.   
    Shirei held out his cup.   
    "This tea needs sugar." 

*** 

    He could hear voices. 

    "What were you thinking?"   
    "If you had your say, I don't think."   
    "Sure doesn't look it!"   
    "Yakamashii." 

    And the dreams swallowed him once again. 

*** 

_    "Wai, sugoi, Yuji-kun!" 

    "You have it all made, Mitsuoka-kun, rich, smart, popular!" 

    "Wow! How do you do that?" 

    … Chigau… this isn't the way things are… everyone… everyone has left… 

    "Ah! There's my boy!" 

    …Father… he… he wouldn't listen…we lost everything, so he killed himself and…   
    …and left… left me…   
    …behind… 

    Alone. 

    "Yuji! Yuji!" 

    … Lies… all lies… friends? Family? I… I have none… They all left me… I have nothing… 

    "What an ominous kid…" 

    … Why? Why can't I see good things for people?… 

    …… I… I wanted to make them happy…… 

    "You! Get out of here! Creepy kid!" 

    Humans are scum. Lower than bugs. A speck of a bug. 

    You don't deserve Happiness. 

    A white shadow descended upon his shoulder with such force that he fell over and landed heavily on his seat. It didn't hurt, not in dreams. It asked a question, but he couldn't describe the voice. He wasn't sure if he'd heard it, even. It wasn't from inside his head. He couldn't tell from what direction it came from. He couldn't tell how he knew. He just did. 

    "Are you happy?" 

_

*** 

    "Whoo! Check it out! Good morning, Sleeping Beauty!"   
    Shadow, Kageyama Reiji, opened his eyes and was, momentarily, blinded. He blinked. Someone moved to close the blinds. He could just make her out in the halo of light. He pulled himself up in a sitting position. On the other end of the couch a second figure watched. While he couldn't make out her features, he felt sure she was smirking widely.   
    "What… you are…"   
    His throat raked painfully from long periods of disuse.   
    "You're alive." A third personality withdrew from the depths of an armchair across of him, laying down a black leather-bound volume stamped "Pilgrim's Progress" in gold lettering. Reiji rubbed his eyes and realised his sunglasses were missing. The setting, as his eyes grew accustomed to work again, was a familiar sophistication.   
    "Tea?" The girl at the window came to offer. He took it with mild thanks. How long has he slept? Where is this?   
    It was served warm, in a dainty cup not unlike his Mother's prized china set.   
    "Where am I?" He asked, dreading and hopeful.   
    "Your home, Yuji."   
    He gripped the cup. How? What's going on?   
    "Nice place, too."   
    Then, with an odd old sensation, he knew. 

    "You are… Gatekeepers?"   
    The woman in the armchair accepted a similar cup from the girl.   
    "Were."   
    The one sharing his couch, the one he couldn't make anything of, had expressions that were visible in her speech. This was a wry grin. "At your service."   
    "Sugar?" 

**  
    Author's Rambling Notes: 
**

And sightings of alien life-forms have been confirmed. They abduct our young people and offer them tea and sugar. 


	4. Resonance: Wind in the Reeds

**Gatekeepers Encore **

Resonance: Wind in the Reeds 

    "Kaidenpo!"   
    "Gatekeepers, move out!"   
    "Ryokai! AEGIS!" 

    The bus rolls out, Ruriko, Megumi perched on the roof, Bancho his usual dreaded backseat-driver. 

_  
    Shun strolls along a riverbank, juggling the occasional pebble on the toe of his shoe. 
_

    The bus slam-brakes. Ruriko wobbles. Megumi steadies her. The side of the bus opens. Gatekeepers spill forth. Multiple rings of varying colours open, slowly revolving. 

_    A blade of grass drifts on the calm river, spiralling over a pot-hole while Shun lies down on the grass and stares into space, almost at peace. 
_

    Ruriko is sending out shots as quick as she could make them. Megumi is a step behind with a green, triple-ringed Gate. The defective barriers that flare briefly, though not always readily, was her work, guarding the Gatekeepers from return fire. The Gate of Enchantment did well to delude the Invaders into misconceptions of isolation, causing them to separate into more manageable groups. Bancho wasn't achieving much, but a number have already succumbed to Kaoru.   
    Megumi drove green wedges into the furthest clump, clearing a momentary way for the arrow right behind it, straight to the Core. 

_    On the bank, Shun was looking at his Earth Defence licence. Suddenly, he picked himself up and hurled it out in one perfect motion. "Plop". It was a stupid picture anyway. 
_

    "Hmph." Yes. She was good. The Invaders screamed their silent death-cry and died a myriad of crystals in the sun. 

_    Shun turns his back on the dancing light upon the water and goes back to his dorm. 
_

    Behind them, an ambush. A wall of Invaders reared, threatening to swallow them. Ruriko notches an arrow. Megumi prepares a barrier. Kaoru and Bancho took up their stances. Then, before any of them did anything, the wall collapsed and dusted the floor with Invader crystal remains.   
    Ruriko lowered her arms. Megumi pushed up her glasses. Kaoru relaxed. Bancho exclaimed surprise enough for all of them.   
    "Please excuse me desu," Reiko peeked out from the transport. "What's going on masu ka?"   
    "Someone's interfering again. How rude." Megumi scowled, annoyed. She could have sworn she'd felt something that time, as could Ruriko.   
    "It's okay, Reiko-chan. We got them." 

*** 

    Ochiai-san struggled with a box of files, trying to close the door at the same time. Ruriko, Kaoru and Bancho would have gone up to help, except who should drop by at that moment but the Koucho-sensei, their Shirei.   
    Bancho's cry was choked off.   
    "Let me take those, Ochiai-san."   
    "Thank you, Shi… Koucho-sensei."   
    "No, I should thank you for finding these for me."   
    The two girls, wearing weasely expressions, peeked around the corner until they were gone, then slowly took their hands off Bancho's mouth. He launches immediately into complaints that neither paid attention to. Instead, they were too busy over Ochiai-san's love-life.   
    "Isn't that just sweet? This is great! Ochiai-san and Shirei…"   
    "It is good that they're coming along…" Ruriko was sincerely glad.   
    "Ne, Ikusawa-senpai, when are you and Ukiya-senpai going out?"   
    "Na… nani?" Ruriko flushed.   
    "He's in a rough spot now. What he really needs is a caring, considerate girlfriend to cheer him up! What are you waiting for?"   
    Ruriko laughed uneasily. "Ee, but he is closer to Megumi-chan these days."   
    "You can't say that," Kaoru protested. "That's only because of Kageyama-senpai! You mustn't give up your love so easily! If you love somebody, you shouldn't be afraid to tell them how you feel or fight another for them!"   
    "Kaoru-hime!" That is the most touching thing I've ever heard!"   
    There goes Bancho with his tears of happiness again. It's a mystery as to how anyone could put up with him. Then again, maybe Kaoru doesn't notice. 

*** 

    "Invaders!"   
    "Geeto, Open!"   
    "Kaoru Punch!"   
    "Kurogane no kabe."   
    "Hikarinoya!" 

    "Gatekeepers!"   
    "Ryoukai! AEGIS!"   
    Shirei watched them leave with an unreadable expression. 

    "Whoa! Bite me, this rocks!"   
    "Wow! It's better than I've ever imagined!"   
    "This needs a celebration. Geeto!"   
    A brilliant yellow circle opens on the ceiling, showering golden light into every corner, giving everything a supernatural glow. 

    It faded into the usual dark, gloomy underground command as Shirei opens his eyes. He must have dozed off. He stretches in his chair and pulls up to his work. The pile of documents was pathetically thin for ten years, especially considering the events. Still, the work was daunting. He couldn't leave it to Ochiai-san either, because he had no idea what he was looking for or hoping to find. 

*** 

_    …I can give you anything you desire. Power beyond imagining… see… 

    She saw.   
    A man, the most powerful, the most feared, swathed in bandages and a purple robe, a sword sheathed by his side. He was unmatched and unmatchable, so great was his influence, so surely did the fires of hell blaze in his eyes. And then, she was he. More powerful than anyone, more powerful than all. She had the power, with her Gate, to crush anyone at will. Nobody dared deny her. Far, far suppressing Ruriko, Shun, Kageyama, even Yukino. She was Invincible.

_   
    - But I would still be your tool. - 

    _… I can give you anything you desire. All the Happiness in the world… see… _

    She saw.   
    A girl, rich, pretty, intelligent, with anything her heart could desire at her fingertips. She was adored and esteemed by all, friends and teachers alike. Everyone saw how good she was. Everyone knew. Everyone understood her. Then, it was she. Rich, pretty, intelligent, showered with love and praise, acknowledged everywhere. Everyone respected her. They humbled themselves before her. Even Ruriko. Shirei, even Kageyama.   
    - But I don't want him to bow before me. I want to chain him up and slap him myself. - 

_    Immediately, it was so. 
_  
    - By myself. With my own strength.- 

    _… I could give you anything you desire. The love you've always envied… see… _

    She saw.   
    Ukiya Shun, Ikusawa Ruriko, surrounded by admirers day in and out, swamped with love letters and chocolates and valentines, always with a vanguard chorus, "senpai, senpai", regularly asked on dates. Then, looking at each other, blush and stutter and shuffle their feet, shy and unsure, pushed together by supporters, surprised, blushing. And it was her in the arms of Ukiya Shun, staring up at the face blushing madly and leaning in with puckered lips.   
    - This is crazy. I don't even like Ukiya Shun, - 

_    The blonde stranger appeared, red and blue eyes twinkling, and laughed.   
    … You are very interesting, Megumi. I think I will like you… 
_  
    - It's not mutual. -   
    _More laughter, smug.   
    … No, I guess not… 
_

    She woke, fumbling for her alarm.   
    "Megumi!"   
    "I'm up!"   
    She was Kurogane Megumi again, with chores to do before breakfast and school. She dressed and hurried, trying hard to remember what it was she was just dreaming, and failing. 

*** 

    Special Committee emergency meeting. In the middle of a test, too. Megumi muttered darkly. Across the room, Ruriko resolutely put up her hand. Megumi sighed and hoped there will be a make-up.   
    The teacher looked at Ruriko and nodded his permission. Not even the teachers knew what the Special Committee was about, only that it was directly controlled by the Koucho-sensei and its members to be given all sorts of concessions. The Gatekeepers stood up quietly and handed in their incomplete scripts.   
    "Your finals are coming," Megumi heard the teacher whisper to Ruriko. "Don't you think you'd better quit all these clubs and concentrate on studying?"   
    "I wish I could, sensei." Ruriko smiled helplessly. "But they need me there. I can't quit now."   
    "Liar." Megumi mumbled. "You love it too much."   
    Ukiya watched the seats empty and pretended not to notice. 

    "They don't give up, do they." Ruriko looked grimly at the mutant broadcast Invader, similar to the ones they'd once fought, a black transmission tower with red klaxon speakers and streaks of red swishing across its structure. Multiple Core.   
    "Don't miss this time."   
    To her surprise, Ruriko heard and replied.   
    "I won't." 

    Ruriko was sure she's scarred for life. Never will she forget that horrible moment when death looked her in the eye and chuckled. Never. And what a horrifying laugh! It was amused, terrible to see in a blank, faceless fiend.   
    They had started fighting, and they were better prepared this time, shifting straight into their new organisation, a co-ordination of defence and offence. Multiple Cores gave the Invader collective ability to split and merge, playing evasive. It didn't matter.   
    Reiko's job was confusion. Ruriko and Kaoru took offence and Megumi was in-charge of all their covers. They made satisfactorily short work of it, combining attacks for added power and fragmenting the structure as possible. The sudden flood of Invaders was alarming, considering not a year ago they had seen an entire population go up a black-hole with their very eyes.   
    Ruriko doubted very much in her mind how much more of these battles they could take on. The Invaders, she dared not share, seem to be getting stronger with each fight, bolder, and even faster. It was as if they were beginning to figure out the Gatekeepers.   
    The last remaining Core gathered its troops and in a ditch effort, became a shark-headed missile. Ruriko picked up her bow and arrow. Everyone was tired, but ready. Just a little closer… come on, Invader scum. She reached for her Gate… 

    And the world fell apart. 

    A black Gate opened between her and the Invader, swallowing it whole. Masaka! Did she…??? Ruriko screamed, dropping her weapons as if they bit her, stumbling back into Megumi. Kaoru and Bancho yelped.   
    "Ka… Ka…!!"   
    This thing, humanoid, tall as a man, appeared, enveloped in a light mantle, and looked silently at the two girls atop the AEGIS bus. She could feel the other girl shaking. The face was bone-white and featureless save a dark glittering oval where the left eye should be, crying twin streaks of scarlet. It chuckled. Ruriko screamed. 

    "A black Gate? You are sure."   
    "Hai! Sou desu!"   
    "I saw it with my own eye!!! It must be Kageyama!!!!"   
    "Masaka!"   
    "Taihen desu!"   
    "I… wouldn't be so sure…" Ruriko cringed miserably. "It… could have been… me…"   
    "Impossible, Ruriko-hime!!"   
    "Ikusawa-senpai! It couldn't have been you! You're good now!"   
    "So you think."   
    "It has to be Kageyama!!! Come back for more, eh?? Didn't get enough of Bancho the last time, huh?? I'll show you!! Bring it on!!! I'll beat the daylights out of him again!!!"   
    "You didn't even get close to him, barbaric fool."   
    "Kaoru-chan… Bancho…"   
    "Daijoubu, senpai! I'm sure you'll never open the black Gate ever again!"   
    "Just you wait, Kageyama!! Kageyama!! We're coming to get you!!!"   
    "Ahem."   
    The rubble quieted and looked expectantly at Shirei.   
    "Let's not jump to conclusions." He said calmly. "Shadow, a.k.a Kageyama Reiji, isn't the only negative Gatekeeper we have known."   
    "Nani???!!!!"   
    "Anyone with Gate powers can open the negative gate if they choose. Hmph."   
    "Shirei, if it's not Kageyama, who could it be?"   
    Shirei linked his hands thoughtfully.   
    "I have no idea."   
    But Megumi caught his eye. "Liar."   
    "We must not overlook any possibility." He told the troupe sternly. "It could have been the thing you saw, or." His face darkens.   
    "Until we make sure, Ikusawa, I'm afraid we'll have to put you under strict surveillance."   
    "What??? Shirei! You can't do that to senpai! She's innocent! I know she is!"   
    "We don't know that." Megumi muttered, keeping her ideas to herself.   
    "You can't arrest Ruriko-hime!! I won't allow it!!"   
    "It… it's okay, Bancho. Really… they're not arresting me, just... watching."   
    Amidst the protest, Megumi thought about the red-and-blue eyed stranger and the hand in the black-hole. 

    It chuckled.   
    Ruriko screamed and went limp. Megumi trembled, trying to hold on to her.   
    "Che." The face moved to Megumi. The dark 'eye' glinted evilly. "Don't turn out like her."   
    Megumi paled further, if that was possible. She had heard that voice before. But where? 

**  
    Author's Rambling Notes: 
**

Shishio cameo this ep. Waaii, Shishio-sama *-*   
Shirei has far too many secrets. His name, for one.   
I liked the image of Kageyama chained up for Meg to slap. It's funny.   
UkiyaxMegumi would make an interesting couple, as would UkiyaxKageyama. Come to think of it, there's no GK yaoi, which is very strange for Anime fics.   
The "you're very interesting" conversation routinely occur between me and interloping fic characters. They never get the hint. Most have taken up permanent residence. 


	5. Con Brio Da Capo: The Firebird

**Gatekeepers Encore **

Con Brio Da Capo: The Firebird 

    "Your request has been denied. The situation waits to be observed." 

    "Ryokai. AEGIS."   
    The screen blanked out. The man who is Shirei to AEGIS Far East was disappointed, though he had very much expected that answer.   
    "Shirei…" His secretary ventures. "Pardon me, but why won't the High Command support us? It was like this the last time too…"   
    Tokyo 1970, reinforcements against one Shadow's national invasion arrived only at the last minute in the form of three Gatekeepers in direct violation of High Command orders. New York was only too glad to sacrifice Japan.   
    "I don't blame them, Ochiai-san." He sat back in his chair. "I understand what you're feeling, but I also understand theirs. You see, Ochiai-san, sometimes, they think it is our fault.   
    "Shirei? For what?"   
    "Everything, Ochiai-san, everything."   
    She was shocked and confused. Why? And more importantly, "What will we do now?"   
    He thought about this.   
    "Get Shanghai branch for me, please." He nods. "I'm calling back some favours." 

*** 

Shun doodled listlessly on his textbook, staring at the back of Megumi's neck as though he was telepathic. Why won't the lesson end, damnit? He spaced out and didn't even notice the teacher leave.   
    "Ukiya-kun,"   
    "Hn… what?" Opps. When did Rurippe get here?   
    "Ukiya-kun, I…. Nevermind."   
    She fled. What was that all about?   
    "Emergency meeting for the Special Committee…"   
    "Aa! Chotto, Megumi-chan!"   
    Megumi paused outside the door. What was he thinking! That was so embarrassing, to be stopped in front of the whole class… Shun didn't notice the colour in her cheeks, too busy noting that of his shoes.   
    "I, uh… will you be at Tokyo Tower today?"   
    "No. I have to study."   
    "Oh." He wasn't sure what he had expected from her, but it probably wasn't this cold lack of concern. "It's okay then."   
    "I would go home and study instead of sight-seeing too if I were you. Maybe then you'll have a chance at graduating." 

    "Invaders were detected on the prefectural highway ten minutes ago." Shirei had no comments on the missing face. Just then, one of the chutes hummed to life. All eyes turned on the interloper, expectant, hopeful…   
    "Arara," With a wide-eyed jingle. "Why's everyone staring?"   
    "Feye-chan!"   
    "Hai, tadaima!"   
    "Feye-chan!" It wasn't who she'd wanted to see, but this was just as good.   
    Shirei cleared his throat. Business first! The command, the code:   
    "Gatekeepers, move out!"   
    "Ryokai! AEGIS!" 

    Shun looked up at the red metal tower, bright and cheerful against the calm blue sky. It was very beautiful and very depressing. He'd have thought Megumi would be here today. Something had suggested she might. That same something brought him here, didn't it? He couldn't explain, but then, he was the impulsive type and they don't ask themselves too many questions.   
    The tower was a beacon for Tokyo, a symbol of peace, progress and prosperity, constructed from the remains of scrapped tanks after the war. It was also a potential Invader beacon, ideal for broadcasting their dreaded electrical signal across the country. Shun shuddered. It was a lot like Kageyama Reiji in that respect. 

    Ruriko found herself staring at Megumi a lot. Ukiya-kun… he was looking at her back in class. An odd ache stirred. Could it be? Megumi was smart and hardworking, quiet and not unpretty. Was she more his type after all?   
    Reiko was very pleased Feye was joining them. From her, Ruriko learns that the signal Kageyama had broadcast spread as far as the Mainland, upping Invader activity by almost two hundred percent. While they had a largely uneventful year, Feye had been extremely active. Ruriko looked sadly at the empty seat that was Shun's favourite place.   
    "Where's taicho?" Feye asked.   
    "Sou desu, I haven't seen him for a while…"   
    "You only notice now?"   
    "Ukiya-senpai is…"   
    "Ukiya-kun's not feeling well." Ruriko insisted. "I will deputy while he is away."   
    "Arara, I hope he's okay!"   
    "He's sulking."   
    "It's nothing serious…"   
    Ruriko blinked. Was it just her or did she just see what she thought she saw? A blonde head ducking through the crowd…?? 

     Shun wasn't sure how long he stood, staring up at the tower like a bumpkin. People hurried by, ignoring him on most part. A giggly group of Junior High girls pointed.   
    "Hello. Thought I might find you here."   
    Shun back-pedalled, misses a step, and falls back. It was some sick joke, but there he was, against a background of trees and sky, shielding his eyes with a hand as he looked up at the red tower.   
    "Kyou wa ii tenki desu ne." The young man smiled. "Let's go up. The view should be good."   
    Shun picked himself up and followed that gaze.   
    "Uhn."   
    All things must come back to its beginnings.   
    A white shadow fluttered across the youngsters as they walked alongside each other to the place of their dreams, as men. Even if one of them has his bag slung over his head the way teenage boys do. 

    "What… what in the world is this??!!" Ruriko shrilled.   
    Someone got it in their head and thought it would be fun to dip a giant ball in a box of eyes and send it on a rampage with a couple of friends. It was gross, harrowing, and lethal. Each of its many eyes blinked to defend itself and emitted pulsar shots. It was the kind of monster that comes to mind when you're walking alone in the dark at midnight and feel watched.   
    It gets better. One of the balls split into smaller, uniped eyeballs when Kaoru hurled an abandoned car at it, scuttling around to prove the incurable, deranged state of mind of their concept designer. In other words, it was a sick construct of a sick mind, Ruriko vowed to kill their creator and thus empowered, got to work. Kaoru cringed, swinging a twisted bit of expressway railing around. It might have been more effective if she'd only watch what she was doing, but it was enough. Bancho simply waddled around, throwing them around.   
    The only purpose of the scuttlers was to join the other Eye-balls. The Gatekeepers picked them off, but a better part perished under friendly fire. The Invaders may be becoming more versatile as a collective, but their thought processes were still hopelessly simplistic, dictating that they fire indiscriminately at will at the sight of Gatekeepers. The party survived unscathed, thanks to Megumi. Being all eyes, they didn't care too much for Reiko's enchantments.   
    The bridge creaked and groaned. 

    "He was born here, you know."   
    Shun startled. All they had done since reaching the observation deck was watch the view. Reiji was right. It was excellent.   
    "Who?"   
    "Shadow. On this very spot."   
    "Kageyama…"   
    Reiji smiled and stretched his back, hands casually stuck in his pockets. "Iya, that's over now."   
    "No it's not." Sun looked away. Megumi was right. He couldn't say what he had to say, not to him. He would never let him get away with it. He had to, though. It was the only way Shun could find peace. "I… I can't fight anymore."   
    "Oh?" And Reiji began to laugh. Hard and hearty, a Shadow-laugh, but not quite as insane or menacing. Shun blinked, caught off guard a second time.   
    "Then I may have won after all."   
    A white bird soared across the window. Reiji watched that a while, and turned back to Shun.   
    "Ukiya-kun, let me ask you a question. Why do you fight?" 

    Bancho charged through the melee, only to turn tail screaming. The pulsar attacks stopped and the Eye-balls began to move, rolling towards each other, the Gatekeepers between them. There was no stopping them. Ruriko's bolts and Feye's fire attacks merely glance off. The girls exclaimed in horror as the bus was squelched. Megane dove out, but whimpered and cowered right next to it, too frightened to move. The Eye-ball squelched him too. Kaoru picked up another conveniently abandoned car and watched it bounce off the Invader.   
    "Senpai!" She looked to Ruriko. Ruriko didn't reply, resolutely firing useless shots. She would love to break down now, but the other Gatekeepers were counting on her. The mad way she stood against the rolling spheres suggested she may have already snapped.   
    "Looks like I have to show off now — " Feye jumped a top a minivan before anyone realised what she was talking about. He Gate opened, fiery red: One. Two. Three:   
    "Giga Rehoupun!!!"   
    A magnificent bird broke free, ascending into the coming Invader construct, shedding golden sparks as it flew, a mythical creature of spirit and purification.   
    "Yatta! Feye-chan!"   
    "Sugoi, Feye-chan!"   
    Hope renewed, they whipped around to get the other one. "Giga…"   
    "Ultra senpuukiri!!"   
    Ukiya Shun walked through the crystalline rain, his face plastered in permanent boyish pride.   
    "Ukiya-kun!"   
    "Ukiya-senpai!"   
    "Taicho!"   
    "Just in time to steal all the credit."   
    Kaoru and Feye raced to pounce him. Bancho cried his 'tears of manhood'. Megane clung madly to his pants, although it was really Megumi who saved him from being crushed. Ruriko hanged back a distance, hesitant. She watched him, surrounded by girls and admirers, and he looked back with that youthful grin of his.   
    "Gomen, Rurippe. I'm late again."   
    Ruriko looked as though she might cry. And just when you thought she was going to throw herself in his arms, she stomped over and gave him a solid left hook.   
    "**Stop CALLING me that!!!**"   
    It might have been possible to hear her all the way from Shanghai. I don't know. I've never been there. In any case, things were back to normal. 

    They made Shun take them to Megumi's for noodles. He couldn't refuse, but tried convincing Kurogane-san to treat. Megumi called him a freeloader. Everyone agreed, although they were more good-natured about it. In the end, Ruriko paid and told Shun off for owing her money.   
    Megumi saw them off. It was light still. She ran back in and emerged with a delivery box, then started off in an opposite direction with a light jog. The ramen had to get to customers hot or it loses its quality. It was something she was very particular about. 

    "What do you think?"   
    "I see it, but I don't believe it."   
    "What's there not to?"   
    "That after all this time, it's happening all over again."   
    "We've got a second chance. Not even AEGIS must stand in our way."   
    "I don't know. We've still got a bone to pick with them."   
    "Of course." There was no mistaking the maniacal edge to that laugh. "I doesn't forget being dead very easy."   
    "And the dead never forget."   
    "No, the afterlife would get too boring." 

    Megumi slowed at a familiar alley junction. The old place, where it all began, where Kageyama first revealed his true self to her. She told herself it doesn't matter. Why should she care about someone who so callously used her and discarded her? No, she should be worrying about the finals, about which Universities to apply to, not his death anniversary.   
    "You shouldn't worry. They'll be no problem for you."   
    She whipped around. Ten paces away, in the light cast from someone's window, was Him. Her eyes flinted. "Kageyama."   
    "It's Yuji, Kurogane-san. Why not use my real name? Mitsuoka Yuji." He smirked and looked about the same to her. The same old sinister fellow, Kageyama Reiji, also known as the negative Gatekeeper, Shadow.   
    He couldn't be a ghost. Ghosts don't have shadows. Something about him ate at he, something different. He was missing his sunglasses. He never goes anywhere without them. But that wasn't it. It was an intangible change, some kind of feeling.   
    Megumi gripped the empty wooden box tight and forced her jaw to unclench.   
    "What do you want."   
       
     **  
    Author's Deranged Notes: 
**

A lesson in office politics: always blame the guys in the East.   
Reiko gets lonely without Feye-chan.   
I wrote about the Eye-ball Invaders at a point where I had been up three days straight working on this fic. It was four a.m. and seemed like a good idea… The one in the Powerpuff Girls was cute, though… ¬.¬ what?   
"Giga rehoupun" is a bad Japanization of "Giga Lei Huo Feng" (Chinese for "Giga (Blazing) Firebird"). It reminds me of "Giga red Harpoon", but somehow, the image of a harpoon made of fire just refuses to stick on Feye.   
Kageyama is back. He always comes back. Is that any surprise?   
The afterlife does get boring without scores to settle and people to haunt. 


	6. Siren Whale: Brother, Dark of My Soul

**Gatekeepers Encore**

Siren Whale: Brother, Dark of My Soul   
       
       
        "Why do you fight?"   
    "I…" The answer that sprang to mind was contrived and bookish to his tongue. He couldn't identify with it, but it was all he had. "To protect the innocent…"   
    Really. Reiji's expression said. Shun bit the inside of his lip.   
    "To... protect those I care about." That sounded better. More true. People came to mind, Kaa-san, Saemi, Matsuda-san, the Baked-yam Man, the neighbours, classmates, the team, Rurippe… "I… I don't want to see them cry…"   
    "Jya, I don't care about any of that," Reiji shrugged. "But if you don't stop acting like a pathetic speck of a bug I shall have to crush you for the sake of my reputation."   
    Shun stared. Reiji flicked something at him. He fumbled and caught it to see his own face grin up at him. It was his Earth Defence Organisation licence.   
    "I found a piece of junk in my grave. See if you can make anything of it."   
    Shun searched Reiji's face for a sign, any sign that he was joking, but Reiji was leaving, the last thing he saw was a slightly creepy Reiji-smile as the elevator door closed on the blonde boy. Shun shuddered. Crushed like a bug. Junk in his grave. He's got to be kidding… right? 

*** 

    Why isn't she surprised? She never really believed he was dead. He didn't deserve death. It would be too quick and good for him.   
    "It was you." She realised. "You made Ukiya come back."   
    "Yes." He tossed unconcernedly. He hadn't come to discuss that bug.   
    "What do you want from me."   
    "Only that I feel I should apologise." He approached casually.   
    Apologise? Megumi trembled. Apologise? She crossed the distance between then and met him midway with a resounding slap. "You think you can use me, dump me, humiliate me then apologise? You have the nerve! At least act sincere about it! Bakerou!" She yelled. He hand glowed angrily against his cheek. "Bastard! Jerk! Scum! You… you are a bug! A speck of a bug! Less! You… how dare you!"   
    He watched all this with surprise, awed by her sudden burst of temper and respecting her for it, although it was kept away from his face. She seethed. Neither the blow nor the words gave her the satisfaction she craved.   
    "A speck of a bug, am I."   
    "That's being polite." She snarled. In her fantasies, he could be her helpless captive now, prisoner to her wills and wiles. She couldn't quite understand why it isn't so yet.   
    "What does that make you, Kurogane?" He smirked. He had the gall to smirk! But it was genuinely funny to him. "A pathetic human who betrayed her species for a speck of a bug?"   
    She flushed, knowing it the truth. The ugly truth. "I am stronger now. You can't use me again."   
    He shrugged. "I only came to apologise."   
    "You could have acted sorry."   
    "I don't beg."   
    "Not to weird bugs."   
    The vicious hurt snagged on him. For a moment, he really did look sorry. Sorry and pained. "I… I didn't mean to call you names."   
    "Liar."   
    "It's true, I…" The moment fled. "I don't need to explain myself to you, Kurogane!"   
    A power stirred around them and two circles of jet-black opened, one in the other, under him, indignantly sinking him in. He was gone. Megumi stared at the spot he had vacated. She flexed her hand. The fingers still throbbed.   
    "It's okay." She whispered to the dark. "You can still call me Megumi. I'd like that."   
    Beady red eyes watched her leave from across the street, then took off on snow-white wings and landed on Reiji's shoulder. (Perhaps we should start calling him Yuji now.) It cawed mutely and pecked at his fingers.   
    "I know."' Reiji… Yuji, sighed. His cheek stung 

*** 

    Ukiya-kun is back. Ruriko laid back on her bed, glad and confused. Ukiya-kun was back! She didn't think she should be quote as delighted as she was. He was only her crush since kindergarten. She got up and made a face at the hand-painted Godzilla toy on her desk. Baka!   
    What is she going to tell him though? About the black gate and her own guilt. The Invaders… Gyaa! It's a beautiful day out. Don't ruin it! She threw her curtains open, something she hadn't done in a long time. The window across was empty, which was just slightly disappointing, until a bum appeared hopping all around the room trying to get in his pants. She froze and cracked.   
    "HENTAI!!!!"   
    "Oi, oi, Rurippe.. ita!"   
    Afterwards they will have to haul everything back in her room again. What a pain. Shun stood on the pavement and laughed to himself. When was the last time that happened? He'd almost missed it.   
    Ruriko came out of her house and tossed her head high, refusing to acknowledge him.   
    "Oh, come on, Rurippe! I'm the real victim!"   
    "Don't call me that!!" 

    They were fighting again. Feye and Kaoru exchanged looks and giggled from the window. Ruriko crossed the premises hotly, leaving Shun to beg and wail behind. Mornings just weren't the same without this. Someone else was watching too. Feye was the first to notice.   
    "Hello," She put on her sweetest and most innocent visage, easy for such a kawaii little girl. "What interesting things do you see?"   
    The student looked her up, and walked away.   
    "How rude!" Kaoru chimed. "What a creepy kid!"   
    "He was spying on Ruriko-chan."   
    "Ikusawa-senpai?" Kaoru's expression blanked. "Why would anyone… Oh!" And darkened. "I'd forgot."   
    "What?"   
    "Ikusawa-senpai is…" 

    "Ne, Rurippe, there's a real hentai up there watching you." Shun observed, wondering what anyone would want with a sniveller like her.   
    "He's not a hentai like you." Rurippe said indignantly. "He's AEGIS." And immediately realised her slip. Opps!   
    "What?" Shun blinked. "Why is AEGIS watching you?"   
    "I…" She looked away. Damn! Why did that have to happen?   
    "Rurippe, what's wrong? What happened?"   
    "I… I'm under surveillance." She admitted reluctantly.   
    "Why?" He would have liked to put his arm around her. She looked so miserable! 

    "The Gate of genocide??"   
    "No! Feye-chan, you mustn't believe it! It can't have been Ikusawa-senpai!"   
    "Kaoru-chan…" She looked about to cry. 

    "Kageyama??"   
    "Iya, it could have been anyone, even me. We don't know for sure, that's why Shirei's put people on me, just in case." She smiled. It was very strained. "I'm glad they did this, really. It makes me feel better, knowing that someone's watching out for me…"   
    "What if…"   
    "They'll take me into custody, I suppose. Make sure I won't hurt anyone."   
    Shun shook his head. No! Not Rurippe! "But… but you're just a harmless sniveller! It can't be you!" If only he hadn't been such a loser and let himself get so down! Then this wouldn't have happened!   
    "It could be." There were dark depths to her that no-one knew. She's put a lot of thought to it. If Megumi had only found those shards of darkness, none of them would be here today. It would be Shadow's world; his and hers and Megumi's. "Because sometimes, Ukiya-kun, I do want to hurt people… like now… people like YOU!"   
    He really shouldn't have called her Rurippe. Now he's gonna get it, hard on the head. Only the teacher passing through saved him when Ruriko reverted at once into her model student mode and sweetly told him to be more careful.   
    We have a perfect word for this kind of behaviour. It's called Schizophrenic. Nowadays we treat it with pacifying drugs and lock people like her away, but that was 1971.   
    He'd forgotten to tell her about Kageyama. 

*** 

    Megumi brooded. Last night was too weird. Since when did Shadow apologise for anything? Unless he wanted something from her after all. What could it be? Bah. She is stronger now, wiser. He couldn't get her so easily now. Could he?   
    Somehow she suspected yes. It was meeting him, stronger, wiser as she was. Something in her had wanted to believe in him. Had it been that way before? It was easier believing she had been manipulated. Kageyama Reiji could read minds, they said. She knew this wasn't true, but he still was a charismatic leader and a crafty deceiver. She also knew now that that wasn't it. She had gone to his side knowing what he was up to. Thrilled by the idea that he had needed her, but beyond that, she suspected something else, something that wanted, needed, him to need her. Not just anyone, but him. Kageyama Reiji. Some mystical connection that drew her to him. She didn't care much for his ideals. What's it to her who rules the country, or even the world? He was sometimes extreme, but that, somehow, was forgiven. She didn't really agree to his bug thesis. Most insects were okay in her books. So what was it? He was a companion. He understood the darkness in her soul. And she realised, she needed him to understand. Just him.   
    This is stupid. It sounded stupid. "He's just using you again." How else could this be explained? The distraction was well-timed, for her and the snake under attack. Some boys in the neighbourhood were regular bullies, taking it upon themselves to torment little animals whenever they can. Usually, Megumi would hurry away, unwilling to tangle with those young shadows of would-be oppressors. Perhaps it was her anger at Kageyama that made her stand up today. Today, she will do something about it and teach those boys a lesson.   
    They ran home screaming about a demon snake. What other creature could it be that could emit a green glow and suddenly grow impervious to all their sticks and stones? Megumi went down beside it. It was only a harmless little grass snake, fresh green and elegant, now scratched in places and bleeding a little. It raised its head and flicked its tongue in thanks.   
    "Hello. That's what you get for wandering too far from home." She scolded lightly. Grass snakes frequent the countryside, where there was plenty of shade and green to go around, not the big boisterous city. It was too noisy and far too dangerous.   
    It blinked wide golden eyes at her. 

*** 

_    …Hello, Megumi… 
_  
    - You again. - _  
    …Some people would sell their souls to see me… 
_  
    - So what do you want with me. - _  
    …Only to make all your dreams come true… 
_  
    - I don't need your pity. You can't use me. - _  
    …I don't want to use you. I want you to use me. You've seen what I can do… 
_  
    - There is a price. - _  
    …Something small. You won't even miss it… 
_  
    - Who are you. - _  
    …Make a wish and find out… 
_  
    - This is a trick. - _  
    …You will come to me, Gatekeeper. It is your destiny… 
_  
    - What do you know about my destiny? - _  
    …I know many things… 

    Megumi started to move towards him (her?), hypnotised. She stopped thinking. She reached out. The stranger smiled, chillingly, with an evil glint in his red eye. Her soul cringed, but her body remained pliant to the currents, carrying her forward, to take that hand… A green lightning struck between them suddenly, scorching her fingers. Megumi startled. 

_    Her finger ached, the dream vivid and cold against her spine. She had fallen asleep at her desk. There was something wet on the table. She looked and found her left middle finger bleeding, slightly nicked. She had reached for the spectre with her left hand.   
    A green snake stared at her. Megumi drew back. How had that got in? There were no windows to her room, only the door that is connected to the shop downstairs. It blinked olive-flaked gold eyes. Where had she seen a snake like that before? It turned away and slithered up her study lamp, then went to sleep with an attitude that suggested she ought to go to bed too.   
    Megumi reached out hesitantly and brushed its wide brow. A soft rhythm vibrated pleasantly through her fingertip. Do snakes purr? 

*** 

_    Ruriko's dreams were restless, of black Gates and Death. She was on a hill, obscured by fog. A black double-ringed circle flared. She stumbled back. Who? What? No… On the other side of the circle stood herself, the perfect mirror, except for the eyes that glowed darkly with Gate power. The other extended her hand at the fog clears, revealing a scene of carnage. There were soldiers and civilians, men, women, children, students, AEGIS agents.   
    "NO!!" She screamed.   
    The Other gestured silently. Who else could have done it?   
    No!!!   
    The black gate flared and the corpses staggered to their feet, lurching towards them. NonononoNO!!! She couldn't even scream, as if someone had turned the volume off on her. She was alone on the hilltop. The Gate was gone. The corpses kept coming. She screamed on and on in her head.   
    It wasn't me! I'm sorry! I didn't do it!   
    Death appeared, as before, in her face. Bone-white, shrouded in a sandy cloak, sporting only a single dark eye that cried blood. It bowed. The corpses moaned. Mocking, all mocking. Her nose ran. Death vanished, leaving the corpses to jeer.   
    Iya!!!   
    They had her in their power. She couldn't wake. They wouldn't let her. She freaked. The black Gate opened. Then, it was her eyes that radiated the Gate's darkness. She was calm now. The Gate flared. Death emerged from its heart and raised its arms. The dead stilled, and led by death, went to their knees to pay her homage. 
_

*** 

    Shirei had a strange new task for them. Shun stole frequent glances at Ruriko who was especially listless. Once dismissed he cornered her, "Ne, Rurippe, are you okay? You look like you didn't sleep well."   
    "I'm fine."   
    "Says the sniveller. Jya, shall we go?"   
    "I'm not a sniveller!" Shun fell over with a new bump.   
    "Megumi-chan, let's form a team!" And dragged the other girl off before anyone, especially Shun, could protest.   
    "Let's see, Gosunkugi lives nearby. Shall we go to his place first?… Megumi-chan, is something wrong? You've been wandering since just now."   
    How embarrassing! To be caught out by Ikusawa!   
    "It's nothing." She couldn't tell her of anything, of course. Those were her secrets, Kageyama, the blonde stranger, the dreams, the snake, the voice. "Let's go."   
    The sooner they got this done the better. Megumi couldn't help but feel Shirei was pulling their leg about all this. There just didn't seem any point investigating potential negative Gatekeepers when he knows something; and it definitely looks like he did! Megumi wasn't trusting like the other Gatekeepers. The man couldn't fool her. But then, she wasn't Kageyama either, with the ability to read minds. 

    "Che, run along. I'm not interested in school girls and men! What is your company thinking, geez!"   
    "Company?" Kaoru brightened. "You know about us?"   
    The man scratched his head. Annoying brats. She was pretty, sure, but not his type. Gojyu liked his women taller, fuller, and all round older. Kids drove him nuts.   
    "Of course I know. I called!"   
    "Terrific! This saves so much trouble! We're here to invite you to join us!!" Bancho hadn't quite got his orders right. They were to investigate, not recruit. But that's typical.   
    Gojyu lifted an eyebrow. "Listen, man, I respect prostitution but only as a john, 'right?" He considered Bancho and added. "I'm not that out of legs to spread." Besides, who wants to join an escort service that serves up people like Bancho?   
    The teenagers flushed.   
    "You're not a Gatekeeper?"   
    "Gate-keeper??" The man pointed down the hall. "You want the old man that sleeps under the stair. He's the one that watches the gates!"   
    Kaoru and Bancho fled the scene. How dumb was that??   
    "What??" Gojyu pulled his door open a second time.   
    "What?"   
    "Oh. It's you."   
    "I'm not welcomed here?"   
    "You're always welcome if you've got booze."   
    "What happened?"   
    "Some kids. Someone told them I'm the caretaker."   
    Hakai laughed and offered him a beer. 

    "You want to watch me exorcise demons?"   
    Genzo Sanzo was a strapping young man of twenty-odd, very blonde and unaccommodating, not at all what you expect of a Sanzo monk, especially when he pulled out his cigarette! Ruriko launched into an auto-speech on the harms of smoking and got a tap for good intentions. Sanzo didn't have much use for them. Megumi thought he might be suspicious. He carried with him an air that suggested he didn't care a lot for people and the world, pushing them into the way of "annoying and unworthy of notice".   
    Sanzo snickered.   
    "Do you have any demons with you?"   
    "Well, no, but…"   
    "Go home, kids. Study. Watch TV. I don't care."   
    "But…"   
    Megumi agreed. It the negative Gatekeeper wanted them, he or she would turn up on his own eventually. Of course, she wasn't about to tell Ruriko t o go home and study. That would diminish her chances of scoring better. "Let's go. We'll find him eventually." 

    "Sooner, if you'll just stay in one place." A voice complained behind them. Ruriko and Megumi whirled. Sanzo reached in his robe for his mantra. The creature was humanoid, female, bone-white, in a rich blue gi top. Black bands clasped her ankles and left wrist. A series of gold and silver bangles adorned the right. He fingers were clawed, the midnight blue of horror. She had but one eye, a left, heavily kohled and bleeding blue. Some dark hair was pulled to the right in a side ponytail. A stylistic draconian tattoo reared on the pale expense of her naked thigh, evil orange eye glinting like a jewel as she perched cross-kneed in mid-air.   
    "Move!" Sanzo roared and threw open his mantra. The white pages lashed around the demon and a foreign script glowed as he chanted.   
    "Would you like me to howl?" She cocked her head amusedly at Sanzo and touched a fingertip to the paper. Black circles revolved in her eye. The script glowed gold, orange, red, then black and the mantra slipped uselessly on the floor, a pile of paper. She snickered.   
    "You're… a negative Gatekeeper!"   
    "Intelligent, aren'tcha." The woman mocked. Ruriko paled.   
    Sanzo reached back in his robe and withdrew a gun. He fires. Buddha knows what a negative Gatekeeper was. In his experience, that didn't matter. Unless you're a ghost, which she wasn't, there's nothing a good ol' bullet wouldn't put a hole through. Assuming that was true, it'd have to reach the target, first. A quad-ringed circle opens and ate it. Sanzo was nonplussed but obviously shaken as he emptied the rest of the clip into its black centre. Ruriko took aim with shaking hands and found her bolts too, swallowed by a series of small black Gates, one for each arrow.   
    "Tsk tsk. Kids these days have no manners."   
    Sanzo reload. He aims. The trigger cocks. A dark power gathers around him. What…? A black Gate opens before him, flares, and suddenly, he droops, like a cut-stringed marionette. The gun clutters noisily to the floor. The girls froze, watching him go limp, head lolling to a side as though someone had sucked out his brains and stolen his soul, rock unsteadily on his feet, and slump over against a wall. A sickly sweet scent of flowery decay filled the prayer hall. In a shower of blighted kinmokusei petals, a second joined them.   
    Two of them!   
    This one was a little shorter than the first, enveloped in a black burial shroud. Wispy white locks of hair laid stark contrast and little else could be seen, although for the better, judging from the livid palette of earths and purples and greens on the glimpse of the jaw.   
    "Show off. You really should learn to watch your back." The voice was light and sweet, effeminate and hauntingly pleasant.   
    "Why? You do a great job of it."   
    The shrouded smiled. "That's still not a good thing. Hello, you two."   
    Ruriko tried to shoot again, but went far off the mark. "Who… who are you? What do you want?"   
    The blue demon rotated her head, almost surprised.   
    "You don't know?" She came up close to the girls. Her eye glittered on Megumi. "You called us."   
    It was all Megumi could do to quiver. She couldn't trust herself to speak. Something fluttered in her, some chord of… recognition? Kinship? She didn't know. Only that she would instinctively drop everything to go with them.   
    "Called… you?" Ruriko whimpered, fearing the worst.   
    "Don't AEGIS tell you anything?" The demonic one snapped.   
    "Do you know the whales' song?" Shroud lilted. "Whales sing to each other in voices only their companions can hear and understand. It is how they call to each another. Tell them where they are."   
    Oh god! Ruriko shuddered. Her knees gave. Megumi had become rooted to her spot. Was this the end? No… It can't end this way… It mustn't!   
    The sound of tires screeching on the road outside was the AEGIS bus. Shun was off and dashing straight in, followed by the others, unfazed, yet to get a good look at their to-be opponents.   
    "Ah, the white knight to the rescue. How gay, little princess."   
    "AEGIS. Still such a pain in the ass."   
    "Oh, you love it. Come on. Let's leave them to it."   
    The blue demon sighed and as suddenly as a snuffed out light, vanished. Shroud looked interestedly at Shun dashing in. "Ask your Shirei about the Gate of Genocide." Her purple lips instructed with a helpful smile.   
    "Rurippe! Ultra… Sen… Puu… Ki… …" Shun stumbled, swashing at thin air, then made a hole in the wall. The villains were gone.   
    "COWARDS!!!" Bancho hollered. "Come back here and fight me!! I, Bancho will take all of you on at once!! What have you done to Ruriko-hime!!!!"   
    "Ru… Rurippe?" 

    Ruriko blinked, and started to cry.   
       
     **  
    Author's deranged notes: 
**

The plot thickens. *enter ominous music*   
Saiyuki cameo!! Gojyu-san doesn't go much for schoolgirls. Fortunately, I only look the part. What I mean to say is, I'm an evil bitch and that turns him on *G*   
Can you imagine Sanzo drooling his brain out with the blank look? Dots for eyes and a small drooling O for a mouth? I love that gun.   
Meg and Reiji are just so cute! *-* Link an outstanding KxK fic by Sakura   
Although, the men in GK are never gonna get laid. I mean… Gawds! They don't know how to handle their women. *shake* Nope.   
On Gosunkugi, he's that creepy guy in Ranma that likes Akane? Yea. If he had a Gate power, I swear, it's gonna be something creepy and pathetically useless. 

Jya, expect a two week break after this chapt. I'm working on the rest of it and I promise the next one is gonna be great and explain more of these mysteries, but exams are starting today (8th Nov, GMT + 8). 


	7. Etude: A Study in Villainy

**Gatekeepers Encore **

Etude: A Study in Villainy 

__

    It is 1959, the 34th year of Showa. Japan is on its speedy recovery from the war, into much economic progress and prosperity. However, wriggling in the dark, unknown to anyone, an enemy emerges; Invaders, that can only be defeated by a power from other dimensions known as "Gates". This is the story of those who use these powers to defend the Earth.  
     They are Gatekeepers.  
     In such times of new uncertainties and constant changes, they are the divine shield, Aegis, against the hand of those that threaten the people, the hidden, unsung heroes. 

    The bulk of all records up to the early sixties have been, they were told, destroyed. What could be salvaged filled but one box, mostly bills from the construction of their Tategami High Headquarters. The relevant folder was even more disappointing, filling but three pages, including damage summaries and a casualty count.   
     "That's all?"   
     "This doesn't look like it'll help at all..."   
     "What is a 'Bakuzou'?"   
     Einjelu Bakuzou Jikan, the Angel Rampage Incident. A little over a decade ago, a Gatekeeper code-named Angel opened the Gate of Genocide killing many in a three-day tragedy before the Gate devoured her, too. The causes were unclear, presumably a nervous breakdown on the part of the Gatekeeper. The damage was given out as dormant landmines left over from the war. After her death, came a greater threat; to AEGIS, at least. A pair of Gatekeepers wielding negative Gates took over the Invaders and declared war on AEGIS International, striking at all branches with deadly accuracy and foresight. Nobody knows where they came from or what they came for. The closest explanation gleaned was that the Gate of Genocide summoned them. The report classified them in bold "do not engage". Their list of victims would have made a respectably sized textbook, a paperback novel for Angel's. A good many, the children shuddered to find, were Gatekeepers.  
     Gatekeepers.  
     With typical youthful brashness they have, on certain levels, always presumed themselves invincible.  
     "So what happened?" Kaoru wanted to know. Judging from the description, AEGIS should not even exist any more. Nor should they be standing here.   
     "We don't know." Shirei steepled his hands together gravely. "They were last seen in France. Local rumour has it they were brought down by some Goddess."   
     "Goddess? Like a witch desu?"   
     "Stupid peasant superstition. Probably a Gatekeeper." The Goddess description didn't sound half-bad, though.   
     "Rurippe... ... Daijoubu! We'll just defeat them all over again! Didn't we kick the other two's ass good?"   
     "YEA!!! And Kageyama too! We'll defeat them, Ruriko-hime! Never fear! I, Banba Chotaro, commonly known as Bancho, will fight to the last to protect you!!!" Shun had to beat the simpleton gangster off Ruriko. How dare he cling on to her like that when he has Kaoru-chan!   
     "That's right! We have my Giga Raging Phoenix! We'll win for sure!"   
     "Arara, I will get them with my Gate of Dazzling again, desu..."   
     "As long as you don't get us first."  
     Three lousy pages for something as big as a rogue Gatekeeper and enemies that almost wiped AEGIS off the face of the earth? Megumi glowered at Shirei behind her glasses. He knew something they didn't. In fact, he'd known right from the start, when they appeared on the fringes of their battles. Were they baiting the negative Gatekeepers or merely sent on a distraction? Either way, she didn't like the way things were going. It made her feel far too used. More frustratingly, that something as dumb as the latest mission could be taken without question by her 'team-mates' was too demeaning. To have to be associated with fools such as these! 

     _ The new principal was a radical, calling first for a complete renovation of the school complex, then accepting an unprecedented number of transfer students. The teachers protested, but found no real reason to disapprove. The students couldn't be bothered with who he is, much less what he intends, as long as he stayed out of their hair. Of the new students, three stood out. They were third-years, seniors, an untimely point in their high-school career to be transferring; and always getting in trouble at the principal's office. They were Gatekeepers. Not the first nor last, nor even the most powerful; merely the best. Angel, Magus and Elysia.  
     There were others. Three from the University, another of the original Tategami enrolment. Their expertise were forgiven for they have been Gatekeepers a far larger part of their lives than any of the rest. Angel herself was recruited at the tender age of eleven, already performing 'miracles' with her Gate of Life.  
     The signs were all there, except no-one was paying enough attention. For whatever reason, Angel began to deteriorate progressively, and finally, against an army led by Kikai-Shogun, unleashed the Gate of Genocide. Kikai fled, grievously injured, his army gone, the chosen battlefield a wasteland; all in a single attack. Such was the power of the Gate of Genocide that took friend and foe alike. 
_

     Ruriko dragged her feet home, more dejected than she ever thought possible. Shun followed her all the way in, but she went quietly up to her room and shut him and her Mother out. The Gate of Genocide. Two negative Gatekeepers. Then it was her. This was too much to bear. The dream, the knowledge of upcoming disaster. She flopped face-down in bed and started to cry. Death. She was the Summoner of Death. The Gatekeeper of the cursed Gate. She. She.   
     "Oh gods," She whispered to the wet duvet, "Kill me now, please."   
     A rattling came at her window. "Rurippe~!!"   
     Ukiya-kun. "Go away." She mumbled.   
     The scratching grew more insistent. "RURIPPE!"   
     She stormed across the room and flung open the window: "I said…! Ukiya-kun! What are you doing??"   
     "Nevermind that, get me out!!"   
     He was hanging on her balcony and slipping fast. Who would be that stupid to attempt to climb across the roof??? Ruriko reached down immediately and helped to pull him up, almost falling over herself. Finally he swung over the balcony and scrabbled onto solid footing, stumbles in his hurry, lands askew of her and gets hurt anyway when she beat him off. It might have been less painful falling from the balcony after all.   
     "Owowowowww..." He glared at her resentfully. Ruriko stood up blandly and went to the door. She really didn't want to face anyone right now, least of all him! Suddenly, a hand grabbed hers as it touched the doorknob and an arm slipped around her shoulders, pulling her tight against him.   
     "Ruriko..." He whispered, so sad, so shattered. Why wouldn't she let him help her? She hurt so much. Any fool could see that. And because she hurt, he hurt too. He could never bear to see a girl cry and she, he saw, had been crying. "Ruriko, please... we're friends. Don't shut me out."   
     "Ukiya-kun..."   
     He could barely hear her. The other part of him half-expected her to hit him off and scold him for being hentai, echhi and lewd. Instead, her shoulders shook in his arms and the outstretched hand allowed itself to be brought back to her body. He held her, in part of fear that if he didn't hold on to her she would suddenly lash out and throw him out the window, but also because if he stepped away, she threatened to break into pieces on the floor. "Ruriko, it's okay. We'll think of something together. All of us. You're not alone, Ruriko. It's okay to cry."   
     He sounded like Kageyama, he thought. He didn't actually know what to say to a sobbing girl, even if it is Rurippe. What would Kageyama have done? He would have turned her around and lent her a shoulder to cry on. Okay.   
     He turned her gently around and put her on his shoulder, patting her like a small frightened animal. She shuddered, then fell against him and sobbed her heart out. 

***

     "I could tell you everything you want to know, show you everything you want to see..."  
     "Go away."  
     A familiar manifesto preened in front of her window, seemingly oblivious to the surroundings. Megumi bent over her desk, determined to pay attention only to her homework. The blonde stretched and drifted delicately down to her bed, as though a feather.  
     "I know what you want, Gate of Iron." He... she... Megumi never figured out the haunting's gender. Not that she cared to, mind. "I could give you all your Shirei knows; give you power beyond imagining; what do you desire? The Gate of Luminance? Or maybe to see the Gate of Life? You will like this, I think. She's crying."  
     "Hn." Megumi went on working. Yes, what wouldn't she give to see Ruriko defeated... but it was enough knowing she was. She didn't have to see it... yet. Not, at least, through the aid of this freak that wouldn't leave her alone.  
     "Just make the wish. It can't get any easier."  
     The window rattled as the book missed its target and crashed heavily into it, leaving her alone with a high, fading laughter.  
     "Megumi!" Her mother yelled up the stairs. "What's going on up there?"  
     "Nothing." She muttered. "Just some bug." 

***

     "Be careful, Koto-san, you'll fall!"  
     "What? Me? Never! At worst, Orizuru'll heal me right up." The lanky youth grinned, swinging one leg to straddle across the new school wall.  
     "In your dreams, saru!" The said '_orizuru_' retorted. Indeed, Koto did resemble a monkey in many ways. But then, so did she, hanging between the bars of the new gate as she did so now.  
     The timidest, a classic Japanese doll-like girl, watched worriedly as her family bickered and scaled the gate. Danger didn't bother her as much as one would think. Only when it involved Chie and Koto. She didn't like them arguing either, for all the two enjoyed it. At a lost, she turned to the man with the new camera and the authority to command them where she couldn't.  
     "Shirei~ make them stop~"  
     "Alright, everybody, look here... smile...!"

     The man known to his people only as Shirei leaned back in his office chair and sighed heavily. He drew off his perpetual sunglasses and pinched a very weary brow. It is unclear if his fatigue comes from physical or emotional roots. Spread across his table are numerous photographs relating to recent events. The sightings, the victims, the Gatekeeper Ikusawa Ruriko. Here and there, yellowing pictures turned up, depicting similar victims and some distorted snapshots as happened when they attempted to photograph the negative Gatekeepers Lich and Shikabane, as they called themselves. Among these, also, were the Gatekeepers of bygone days. Of interest, mostly because it was in the centre of the table, atop all the rest, was a sepia print of three high-school girls excitedly adorning the Tategami High front gate. If any single picture could convey the message of _Shiawase_ in full-force, this would be it.  
     It was impossible to tell the true colour of the scene, which he had long forgotten. This knowledge was an indelible scar upon his soul. He would weep upon it if he could. But he was Shirei, the cold command. He could never weep.  
    

***

     _ She wandered aimlessly in the empty corridors, trying to remember why she was here. The pristine passage suggested hospital. The hospital? What was she doing... she stopped, stunned, seeing herself napping in a chair outside a room. Someone had wrapped her in a jacket and she slept peacefully as she hadn't since first opening the dark Gate. If she was there, then who is she? Ruriko felt a momentary surge of panic. The door she slept by opened a crack and called to her. Ruriko approached, reluctant but unable to resist. Step, step. Her hand barely touched the knob when the door sprang open on a brightly-lit room, a hospital ward. Shadows congregated by the occupied beds, like ghostly afterimages, only sharper under the light contrast, obscuring her view of the patients. A small group broke away and beckoned her in. One or two bowed, but somehow she felt and thought nothing of it.  
     The welcoming committee conducted her to the midst of the party; three familiar faces slept in the beds, surrounded by still more familiar faces. A shock hit Ruriko, but at the same time, meant nothing to her. A heavy-set boy was the first to catch on to her. He leapt from his girl's side with a single anguished howl and grabbed her by the lapels of her uniform. "Ikusawa!!" But the moment he touched her, he vanished and there became, another occupied bed where he slept, to all appearances, in peaceful bliss. A small Chinese girl confronted her, hate and betrayal hot on her cheeks. "You monster!" She cried, stinging Ruriko with a hard slap and turning away. She didn't get far; only to the next bed. The gentle musician turned an expression of hurt and confusion. "Why? Why did you do this? What have we ever done to you? Do you hate us so much?" She tried to take her hand, but when the gentle hand touched Ruriko's own, she too transported into a bed, lifeless and quiet. To all this, Ruriko was unmoved.  
     The cowled figure of Death straightened from the shadows over the man they had come to love almost as a father and extended its scythe, shaft-forth, towards her. Numbly, Ruriko took it and revelled in how good and natural it felt in her hands. She tried a few passes and felt her lips curl in an appreciative smile. The murmur rose up from her congregation of ghosts, "Hail to the Lady of Genocide", rolling like a sweet wave across her, until it invaded her tongue and rolled delicately like an exquisite morsel from her own lips, "Hail the Lady of Genocide."  
     In a bedside mirror she saw herself, as she always was, but a regal, serene expression maturing her features and the light brown of her eyes now a beautiful matte darkness. 
_

***

     Megumi smothered behind her glasses, working at the tables with the vengeance she was saving for Shirei and a certain blonde personage. Her father chided her good-humouredly, saying he asked her to wipe the tables, not strip it. Some of the regulars laughed. Megumi flushed. How humiliating.   
     She turned to go back in the kitchen when the man next to her slammed his bowl down and started yelling at her. She gritted her teeth and stood to the abuse, smothering behind her glasses. Her father started to move out of the counter.   
     "Oi! Look at me when I'm talking to you, damnit!!"   
     "I'd rather not. Seeing your face will only make me puke."   
     "WHAT DID YOU SAY??? WHAT DID YOU!!!!"   
     "Sir, please leave."   
     "Where did you find such a ugly little toad to waitress! Send her back to the paddy fields!"   
     Megumi's fists clenched and unclenched. Her lip quivered.   
     "Sir," Mr Kurogane asserted with a little more force. "Please leave."   
     Megumi stopped paying attention. In her mind she was thinking of things to do to that man, interesting shapes to contort him into. Interesting things to make him lick her shoe and beg. Yes, beg... and then, the man flickered and paled. He gasps for breath. Megumi looks up in shock. Did she do something? No, it wasn't her. The man was gasping and falling, his eyes getting harrowed and haunted, screaming silently to something only he heard. The customers fall back, as does her father. The man gropes for something in his pocket and comes up with... a pair of sunglasses. He puts them on. He transforms.   
     Screaming. There was screaming everywhere. The owner falls on his hands in wide-eyed shock. Megumi pales. The red invader was brawling to himself. Customers fell over each other getting out. Her mother came running from inside to see what's going on. Her father was tugging at her hand, having picked himself up, and was dragging her along. She mental-slaps herself into action and pulls free. The shop! It must not harm the store or her parents or the customers. She will not allow it! The green Gate snaps open, unfurling its rings of light, one, two, three, four. Something smooth and green cupped over the middle-aged couple as their daughter steps up to face down the terrible monster that had suddenly appeared, livid red, covered in metal spikes, resembling, in some parts, a motorcycle. It swings a chain around its head, at the girl, to her horrified parents. It deflects with some power and produced sparks. Their faces drained of blood. Megumi glowered at the Invader. There was nothing to fear with her Gate of Iron. It smashes a table. She throws out her hand and freezes him in a lamination of green.   
     "How dare you... how dare you threaten my family... our store... the customers... how dare you cause trouble here... you miserable cockroach..." She advanced, furious, not sure of what she could do and some dark impulse taught her to fortify something and impale this annoying sub-creature. She does. But as the hand brushed the green glow around the Invader, the glow dims and becomes a darkness. Her hand was sucked in and images flooded to her. What?? Pain, confusion, darkness, darkness, desire. Want. Need. Want. WANT! What... Who? The true form...!   
     The Invader shatters, releasing her, becoming a red crystal that quickly withers. Megumi falls back. Her black Gate. She was pale and trembling. The couple watched her rock on her feet, then fall over in a fainting spell. They rushed forward, but the green thing inhibited them. They banged their fists against it and it disappeared: but so too, did Kurogane Megumi. 

***

     "Nani ka, Rurippe..." Shun looked around groggily. It was three in the morning, according to Ruriko's clock. He had fallen asleep by her bedside after putting her to rest and now felt the consequence of stiff joints and kinked muscles. He groaned pathetically to himself. It was a moment before he registered the beeping that was their AEGIS intercoms. Ruriko was already answering hers and ignoring his question, so Shun, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, crawled over and tried to look over her shoulder.  
     It was Megane, freaking out, so it was rather difficult to decipher his words. Shun yawned and rested his chin on Ruriko's shoulder, who promptly shoved him off.  
     "Se... senpai~!! Taihen desu!!! Come qu... quick~!!"  
     "What is it, Megane?"  
     "The... the base... Shirei... It's AWFUL!!!!!"  
     Nothing more could be gleaned from the brawling mechanic. Ruriko's heart sank. Her stomach clenched. _No... surely..._ But Megane wouldn't kid about such things, would he? He really did look scared.  
     "Megane, what happened?" Shun demanded, fully awakened by the implication of trouble with the base and Shirei. Megane babbled. Shun repeated his question with greater bellowing. Ruriko cringed, but with a different fear. _I must be going crazy..._ She thought. There was no doubt now, that she was at fault. Megane babbled.  
     "Ukiya-kun." Ruriko reprimanded the Captain of the Gatekeepers. He was all red in the face now, the muscles in his neck that neither knew he had bulging alarmingly. "Megane," She spoke soothingly to the frantic boy. He was crying uncontrollably now. "Megane, where are you?"  
     "The... the hospital..." The hospital? Ruriko forced down a surge of panic. She had to be strong... yes, she had to be... _It's all your fault.  
_ "Don't worry, Megane, we're coming. Everything will be alright."  
     Now, if only she could believe that.

     The story was still very much fragmented. The base was attacked, from what they gleaned, and suffered terrible losses. The attackers left a trail of victims from the secret Gas-station entrance to the Headquarters under the school. Twenty, a ripe score. Of these, seventeen were AEGIS personnel including, devastatingly, the Shirei of the Far-East Branch. Tempers frayed, minds fell apart. It was all Ruriko could do to turn up dry-eyed. Shun paced the end of the sickbed, the weight of responsibility once again pressing uncomfortably upon him.  
     "Taicho..."  
     What happens now? They all looked to him with that same question; and he? He would much liked to deflect it to someone else. Shirei, Ochiai-san, anyone... ... but there was no-one.  
     "Taicho... ..." Feye repeated, softer this time. "Why don't you sit down? You're making me dizzy."  
     "Gomen."  
     It wasn't in his nature to sit still, not even in times such as these, so he took it outside, where Bancho and Kaoru sat with Ochiai-san. They shared the air of gloom and despair. Megane curled in a pathetic whimpering ball, crying himself to sleep on the bench. Reiko appeared to give out refreshments, surprisingly the most together in the face of such horror. This was no ordinary affliction upon their fellows. No few of them were dead. Those who remained were as if zombies, without mind or soul, and while Ruriko's Gate brought them back to physical health, it did nothing for their spiritual well-being though she drove herself to exhaustion trying. The poor girl napped in a chair by the door. Shun blanketed his jacket top over her and paced the corridor, forcing himself to think.  
     "Has the World headquarters been notified?" He made the effort to soften his tone and be gentle with the ma'am secretary, but the effort was lost. Ochiai-san nodded numbly, unable to elaborate. She wasn't required to.  
     The other thing that vexed him was the non-appearance of Kurogane. He fretted. For all the dark capacities within her, she was not truly a bad egg. He worried as he tried to put the faces of those in the wards out of his mind, telling himself firmly that she was _not_ going to be found that way. No, she will not. _Gods, please be alright, Megumi-chan. _

     The cool sand bit into the back of her neck, slightly velvety as she moved and moaned. She hurt, as though someone had just picked up the Tokyo Tower and whacked her over the head with it. Not, by far, the most pleasant experience of her short life. The darkness focused into a cavern of some sort, bathed in the green starlight of a curious crystal deposit that saturated the surrounding rocks. No exit was apparent. Megumi sat up, uncomfortable, as though being watched. And she was. On a dim-glowing green rock perched a delicate little garden snake, a pleasant brilliant green, studying her in rapt attention. Megumi scrambled to her feet, refusing to be laughed at, even by a tiny reptile. There was something oddly comforting about the snake, something very familiar. It blinked its large, golden eyes.  
     "Where are we?" Megumi approached it, a corner of her mind feeling very stupid for talking to a dumb animal. The snake blinked as though to shrug, and rubbed her – somehow, she knew it had to be a her – head against Megumi's outstretched fingers. The action filled Megumi with a strange glow of affection and familiarity, rightness, as if some long-lost part of her has been completed. Megumi studied the snake wonderingly. "Who... who are you?" She whispered softly, knowing the answer wasn't really important.  
     The snake fixed her with a hypnotic, warm gaze, returning her question. _What is my name? _

***

     It was just a routine night at the Headquarters, wasn't it? Ochiai-san huddled in a corner, willing herself to be strong. It was only routine... ...  
     The doors slid open of their own accord, which should not have been possible, but that quickly became the least of their worries. Two figures took their grand entrance against the light, grabbing first one, then the other of the girls that stood up from their consoles. An invisible hand flung the third into her work-station with enough force to damage it beyond repair. The figure in the mantle dropped the girl whose head she had grabbed, letting her slide bonelessly, blank-faced to the floor. The other intruder let her fingers dig into the other girl's throat while she gasped and struggled for air, then with a wet gurgle fell silent. Then this woman passed her hand, the horrible, blood-slicked hand, over the other consoles. The computers sputtered and died. Shirei had stood up and held his gun out to them. His hand shook and Ochiai was afraid.   
     "Guns? Again? Gee, how creative."   
     "Hello, Shirei-aniki."   
     "What do you want."   
     "What? No warm welcome? No tear-streaked reunion? Awww..." The cruel woman licked her fingers and claws clean. They were bronze, the claws. They continued to approach. Her hair was a shock of wine and gold, her face paper-white with nothing on it except a single fully filled eye mounted on streaks of gold. "What do you think of this?" She twirled care-freely in front of the conference table. It was a white and red Shinto Miko ritual robe, worn tight, with the shoulders cut out. The red skirt flared prettily at her heels and a tattooed dragon winked a sinister orange eye from her pale shoulder. Black cupped her ankles and wrist, heavy bangles of gold and silver gracing the other. "Very festive, ne? Perfect for the occasion."   
     "What... what occasion?" Ochiai had to ask. Shirei stood, silently contemplating the duo. The face was grim-set, but the hand was never so unsteady in all Ochiai's time of knowing it.   
     "Why," Crooned the muffled-up creature, appearing suddenly in her face with a sickly sweet scent on its breath that threatened to choke her. "There are many things to remember today: a death, a birth, and a long-due reunion." The creature without a face snickered. Ochiai wasn't sure how, only that it did.   
     "Leave her alone."   
     The mantled woman straightened and posed with a hurt cock of her head at the gruff man. "That hurt, Shirei-aniki. Don't you remember what today is?"   
     "I told you he'd forget. Heh. He never had a good head for women's business."   
     A long-suffering sigh. "True, true." But she swept away from Ochiai's stunned collapse on the floor to join her companion.   
     "What are you after this time."   
     "Oh, put that away." The pale creature chuckled, scratching a fine line along the barrel of Shirei's gun with a claw as she appears before him suddenly. "You know it doesn't work on us."   
     Shirei fired anyway. The creature dodged. A small black Gate opened and swallowed the shot.   
     "Now, now, dear..." Cloak began. Her friend wasn't listening.   
     "How could you?" She sighs at Shirei, filled with a mock melancholy. "How could you? After all we've been through, after all we've done for you..." She reached out. A second shot ran right into her. The target rippled slightly. She didn't bleed. The bronze claws closed in on the gun-hand and dug in. Shirei gasped and let go of the gun as his hand turned into a bloody pulped mess. The wet crunch turned Ochiai's stomach. Crunch, crunch.   
     "Oh, you are such a heartless man, Shirei-aniki." The black burial shrouded woman materialises behind him, resting those decaying hands on his shoulders, reeking of a certain dead flower she couldn't quite place. Shirei flinched.   
     "Sir," The white religious creature smiled cruelly in her words. "Sir, I have long awaited this honour." She twisted his arm and it snapped. He screams a short, agonised cry.   
     A gleeful, almost child-like, "Hai... Koreja, Shirei-aniki no Genocide Legacy da. Yo. Ne."   
     A black Gate opens over Shirei's head and something, Ochiai saw, was drawn into it, like fairy sparks. Shirei slumped in their arms to a lifeless drooling doll. They winked out and reappeared at the door. Shirei crumpled into his chair. The cloak bowed. The other blew Ochiai a kiss. And they walked out in all dignity and sweeping grand elegance as mysteries riding off into the light. 

***

     It is 1971, the 46th year of Showa. Japan is enjoying a period of high economic growth and success. The enemy known as Invaders threatening the peace and prosperity has been utterly defeated. Still unknown to most is that there are yet those who wriggle undetected in the dark, growing stronger in the pus-boil of the earth, recovering, scheming, bidding their time.   
     Kikai-Shogun seethed, permanently red with mortification. His humiliation was complete in the hands of a boy, a mere boy, their puppet! He blamed it on Akuma. The crazy old fiend should have kept a better eye on him. The disgusting child. He never liked children. Old fool. Why did he have to insist on keeping Shadow? That's what happens when you rely too much on those horrible human things. He didn't even care if Akuma heard him. He had nothing to fear from the impotent old freak, impotent being the operative. This again, courtesy of the Gatekeeper boy Shadow. His losing to the Gatekeeper of Gales mindlessly rendered them all to destruction. Only by virtue of quick acting did they manage to escape, now hidden deep below ground, soaking the rest of their days away in a crude curative mess. He wasn't sure how long they've been there. He didn't care. It was all the same: too long. Their defeat was the cause of it all. They would have annihilated each another each other several lifetimes over had it not been for the state of affairs that made them unable and unwilling. Still fused together, their existence has narrowed down to a shared dependency sustained on their makeshift life-support, a distasteful goop that gathered hate and desire from above-ground. They were, dismayingly, one, now. They bickered. It was their only entertainment in this pointlessness.   
     They came from nowhere, in an accompaniment of anti-light and rotting fragrance. Kikai froze. He remembered them with the clarity of a recurring nightmare, as did Akuma. No... not... them!   
     "Looks like Kikai-kun is a little under the weather." Shikabane.   
     "Oh, and Akuma-chan too, how sad." And Lich.   
     "But... but..." Akuma stuttered. Akuma-Hakushoku never stutters.   
     "We're dead?" There was nothing kindly about the heavily cloaked woman, despite the deception of her voice. They have seen what she was capable of in days best forgotten.   
     "Well, tough break, honey," Lich grinned. This is known from the tone of her voice, there being little features for her to be expressive with. "We're ba~ck."  
     Akuma forced a smile. "That's great." The thought passed his mind to pull the plug on himself. Would that be more merciful than having to deal with the two again? Perhaps; but it was too late for that.   
     "Oh, now, what do you propose we do with you?"   
     Kikai flinched. Surely they wouldn't... the goop glowed with an enthusiasm he found hard to match, charged in the presence of such hate, desire, and his and Akuma's own fears. The games of Fate are cruel. Akuma began to snigger. "Hehehehe hehehehe!" Kikai joined in his boisterous laugh. Shikabane curved her lips in an ironic smile. Lich's single eye glinted, amused in much the same way snakes are, toying with their food.   
     "What can you do? Kill us? Or steal our souls and plunge us into eternal marionette despair?" Akuma took the chance. These were such human things and he was hardly what one could call human. Both, then, seem equally pointless. They were immortal, he and Kikai, and anyway, the duo they were now faced with were never big on killing. It was too easy on the victims.   
     "Yes," The sweet insanity agreed. "You do not know the fears and despairs of mortality; although it is not, I hope, too late to teach you."   
     The voice of Lich chuckled as the one-eyed demonic caught Kikai's chin and tilted it to her inspection. He gave everything to stilling himself. He was, is, a soldier. He will not be intimidated by a couple of crazy bitches, damnit! Her face was terrible to look at, deeply disconcerting in its smooth planes devoid of nose and lips, harrowing in the single bleeding, glittering eye, small and oval, serpentine in shape and glinting dark, with no whites or pupils, only its olive-pit space of unfathomable fears. 

**  
    Author's Deranged Notes: 
**  
Rewrote Chapter 7 since the last one was apparently an awful filler. Gomen nasai -.-;;;; 


	8. Lullaby: And there was Another Baby in M...

**Gatekeepers Encore **

**Lullaby: And there was Another Baby in My Bed**

Mitsuoka Yuji woke with a certain sense of unease from a quickly fading dream, into another boring afternoon of leisure. For a moment he thought he was a child again, waking up in a random room in his familial mansion after falling asleep in the middle of a game of hide-and-seek. A nostalgic sadness rose in him, remembering. Nobody ever came looking for him.

But it's all different now, ne? He didn't really want people to come looking for him. He enjoyed his solitary leisure. No places to go, things to do, downfalls to plan and bring about... Let the rest of existence whiz on by in their pathetic daily little lives. You are free to put up your feet and snigger; or not, if that's too much trouble. Today, he was his own man. He stretched the kinks from his neck and considered another nap.

A world away, a woman in pink paced the sterile hospital maze, caught in indecision. Her heart told her an action in direct conflict with her long-standing orders. Her mind deferred that it is not her area of responsibility. There should be no question what the line of action should be, but then, she was not _them_. She lacked the courage _they_ had, the courage that saved the world. Ironic, that she has seen more than a person's, or even a Gatekeeper's, share of horrors, faced and survived them all, and yet, lacked the simple courage to defy an order for the greater good.

Her place was to remain secret, the final frontier against whatever that may threaten the integrity of AEGIS International's internal security. She had no other purpose, as she walked into a school girl in the halls.

"Aaa, gomennasai...! Oh dear, your dress is all stained... arara, how careless of Reiko...."

"I... I'm sorry about your coffee..." She stammered at the concerned young girl with none of the poise and grace her image projected.

"Oh no, I'm sorry I was so clumsy... what will everyone say... mou..." Reiko smiled sheepishly.

Asagiri Reiko, the dazzling Gate of Glamour. Soft-spoken, as is her gentle heart, shy, with the mentality of a child. Simple, one might say, and at that moment, faced with her innocent smile and easily given emotions, the woman envied her with all her hidden heart. All of her heart.

---

Nobody ever comes looking for her.

Megumi hugged her knees to her chest, tired and miserable now that the excitement has worn off. She wanted to go home. Even though her parents and everyone else around her were stupid and didn't appreciate her. Even if everything was pointless in her pathetic little life and if, as that strange bastard that keeps appearing to disturb her said, though not explicitly, she was in fact weak and stupid, not at all the strong personality she fancied herself to be.

So, not knowing the way home, the little girl curled up on herself in her pretty cavernous prison with the glittering green-on-black rocks and cried.

Presently, the little green snake with the hard golden eyes slithered up around her right ankle and fell asleep.

---

She dreams. She dreamt. She is dreaming.

_Masses of zombies falling over their fallen pieces came to her on the top of the hill. The sky was bloodied. The grass was bloody. The earth bled. They came to her, chanting, and she was rooted, shackled by chains of blood warm on her ankles and face. She held her bow and arrow in her hands, caught between a logical paradox. If she gave life to these undead, will they become more powerful? Or will they shrivel up and die? _

_And then she noticed. _

_The blood on her arrow. _

_And her eyes cleared and she saw, littered at her feet, the fresh corpses of familiar faces, blood on her arrow. In a distance, from the north and the south, came two figures. A young girl with long hair that danced free on the scent of death, and a long muffled figure with a deadly curved blade... ... _

_Iya... IYA!!!!_

"She looks so peaceful, doesn't she?" Shun sighed. "It's been a while since she could sleep like this." Kaoru gave him a sharp look. "What?" Shun shied away from the sudden warmth creeping up his neck and cheeks. "We live next door!" Feye and Reiko, being the innocents that they are, totally missed the (mis)-implications and were subsequently very lost, as usual.

_Someone smiled, a cruel, self-satisfied smile, and she was dark. Nothing, now. Only a warm velvet darkness and blissful, blissful silence. Yes, go away... leave me now... ..._

And oblivious to them all, Ruriko slept, lulled in the comforting silence.

"Yes, sleep tonight, _hime-jou-chan_..." Whispered a spectre smiling, somewhere else. "For tomorrow, you may never sleep again."

---

He dreamed. He dreamt of his youth, of destitution, of dissolution, and he dreamt of things he had thought long forgotten. He wasn't sure he was comfortable with that.

When he woke, the one they had called only Geas sat across from him, in the depths of a great armchair, reading. He watched her finish it and put it down, a black leather-bound volume stamped "Pilgrim's Progress" in gold lettering.

"Good afternoon, Mitsuoka-kun. How did you sleep?"

He frowned. His dreams perturbed him, pricked at him in some way he did not quite understand.

"That was a loaded question." He murmured, accusatory.

Geas smiled mysteriously. "I know. Tea?"

He declined, sitting up from the daybed trying to stretch out his long limbs as she observed him, Of the three who abducted (saved? – the distinction seemed somewhat uncertain to him) him from his just ends, she unnerved him the most with her pale silver hair and bright coral eyes, ghost-like. It was a rare condition of the body, the same that made her confined to the house and the night.

Although by far the most rational and stabilizing force of the household, Kaika with her _ningyou_ manners and inexplicable belief in tea and Koto's generally outrageous moods and styles seem to become easily overlooked in her quiet, ineffable presence.

"Geas-sama," He averted her questions with one of his own. "You said you were Gatekeepers..." She cocked her head a little towards him, stirring sugar rhythmatically into her teacup. Suddenly he was nervous about the answer. "... Then, what are you?"

She thought about this a while, bemused, and answered, "Wynken, Blynken and Nod, Yuji. Dreams. We are dreams."

He nodded, satisfied. "Though I shall have to think on that."

Then added, "And I think I'm really more Reiji now."

---

"What do you mean you can't find anything? You found those files on Shadow for Kurogane, didn't you?"

"I don't know! Here! Try it yourself!" Megane shoved the chair towards Bancho's wide frame. Bancho stared at the tiny symbols and letters on the mysterious mechanical contraption and shoved Megane back in his seat.

"I don't know any of this! What are you giving it to me for! K-so....!!"

Kaoru and Shun crowded around, too high strung to notice. Ruriko hung around their edges. It was warm and cramped in the computer resource room. Megane was nervous about being caught hacking into AEGIS secured files. Their anticipation was high, but greater still was fear at what they would find.

"Try 'Gatekeeper Angel'." Ruriko suggested hesitantly and screwed her eyes tightly shut. The computer clicked and whirred and finally, after a pregnant pause, beeped.

The accessed file showed a series of mug shots such as those on their own Earth Defence licence, in monochrome sepia tones. A blinking red "CLASSIFIED" sign obscured the screen and there was no text.

"Kore..."

"Could they be... an earlier Gatekeeper team?"

"Ee How long ago do you think this is?"

"There're so many of them... ..."

"Seven from Japan and fifty-six around the World, 1958."

They jumped as one, turning to see a woman in a pink dress, carrying a white motorcycle helmet. She had an open, welcoming face under the sad, pained expression she did not seem to realise she wore. "Hello, Gatekeepers," She said softly as she bowed. "Dozo yoroshiku. Please forgive me, I cannot introduce myself because of my job description."

"How can we trust you then?" Shun snapped before the words came to his mind. _Because,_ Megane thought at him, _I've seen her around the base before? She must be some kind of secret agent... or a secret weapon! Sugoii! _Unfortunately, Shun wasn't psychic enough to pick that up and required convincing otherwise.

"With this." The woman announced, holding up a clear plastic card, the AEGIS symbol embedded in its heart. This was good enough for them. Shun stepped forward.

"I am Ukiya Shun, Captain of this team. You know about the Gate of Genocide?"

"I was there."

They couldn't pull her in fast enough.

"Please tell us!"

"I..." It would be a serious breach in her protocol, but she had broken the most important one against contact with the Gatekeepers already. They deserve... no, _need_ to know.

"I could show you."

"Arara! Taihen, taicho!" Feye scrambled into the doorway, followed shortly by Reiko.

"A're, you're the lady I spilled coffee on yesterday... gomen nasai..."

"Feye, what is it?"

"Ta... Taicho..." The little Chinese girl huffed, "In... Invaders!"

---

Red. Ruriko hated that colour. Red.  
Of boundless seas of Invaders.  
Of strive, war, fight.  
Of blood.  
Ruriko hated that colour.

She thought.

---

Something was different in the air today, Feye could not help but sense. There was no sight of the usual life and vigour in her fellow Earth Defenders; certainly, she felt very little of the old enthusiasm herself, what with Shirei down and the base destroyed, it was as though everything has fallen apart... but surely it was only in her head? They weren't actually defeated yet. They hadn't even started fighting.

The bus pulled in on an otherwise empty lot. Invaders? There was nothing... And the mad melee began.

They had been laying in wait in the long grass, among discarded concrete piping and other construction debris. No, wait, they WERE the debris. Where did they get the idea to stick bits of sharp, hard objects into themselves? A bout of nausea threatened, watching them pick up broken pipes and other assortments and driving it all into their red plastic flesh, watching the flesh open and close around the new wounds, fusing in the new hardware. She couldn't bear to watch, and the sentiment surprised her. It was as if she actually thought of them as human beings, had a sympathy with them, for all they were her enemies and she has killed many in her day without so much as a bat of an eyelash. She hid this by running to Shun's side. Taicho could always steady her nerves and resolve when she grew too weak.

Kaoru clang pale-faced to Bancho's arm. Red. Red everywhere. Their welcoming committee was made up entirely of the red Core Invaders. The way they rose out of ambush resembled men raising from their graves, ashen-faced, glistening in red blood, lurching sluggishly forward like a zombie army. "Ban... Bancho..." She whimpered pitifully. This was impossible, like fighting a many-headed serpent!

"It's okay, Hime..." His huge bear-paw hand clasped firmly over hers. But he was scared too. He didn't tremble, having Kaoru to protect, but it was in his unusually quiet tone and knuckles pale enough to match her bloodless cheeks. He worried now, if he was going to get out of this. He couldn't control his Gate at all... and even though thoughts of death were far from their minds and impossible to picture as it is with young people, they couldn't help but feel its cold, cold breath and shiver in the unrecognised fear.

It was inexplicable, as if they had gained the powers of his Gate of Gales: one minute the Invaders were advancing slowly towards them, as though they had trouble making their way through the grass, the next they were swarming all over them. And it was no good trying to take them out, either. There were just too many targets, and far too close to them. Unlike the battles of yore where entire victories were based on their foolproof stall-as-long-as-possible-and-take-out-the-leader strategy, this one promised not to turn out that way. The Invaders had a tougher strategy: arm-yourselves-to-the-teeth-and-throw-yourselves-at-them; there are a score and a half of us and only six... no, four Gatekeepers... two were missing, and all the better. Shun tried the best he could to fend them off, but it was impossible in this hot press. He saw Feye's look and understood her reluctance to engage the enemy. He shared the same hesitation, knowing that opening their Gates and throwing out attacks such as theirs would just as easily harm their team-mates.

Reiko was the calmest of the lot by virtue of ignorance. It's very easy to be calm when you have no idea what you're up against. This was Reiko's strength and weakness. Protected by the gentle love of her own music, she was spared the cold hand of fear, but also failed to realise her Gate, dazzling pink over the AEGIS bus, was having no effect on the battle where the Invaders had apparently done their homework and traded in their hearing.

Ruriko steeled herself, determined to make every shot count, for she didn't have very many. The Invaders have learnt their lesson. It didn't take long for her to find herself completely isolated among that hateful, tearing, disturbing mass of aliens easily overwhelming her. Her hands shook. She was lucky if even one of those fifteen arrows she had actually hit something. The pink bow slipped from her numb fingers as the last fell empty. She threw her Gate wide open, its double rings of pale golden light before her like a small, desperate shield. Was it her or did they seem greyed out along the edges? Perhaps it was just dark...? A part of her cringed. Another part, a stronger, more savage, heartless part that has been lurking around ever since the Gate of Genocide, stood tall and snatched her hand straight out, through the centre of the Gate of Life. She held her breath, unable to fight against the other soul, in rapt, horrified fascination, heightened by the knowledge that she wanted this too, that the electric rush of power thrilled her as much as it did her dark self, and let the silent scream tear her head apart.

He couldn't see Ruriko anywhere, but then, he couldn't find Kaoru and Bancho and Megumi, either, so thick was the blanket of attack, and all they could do was put their arms over their heads in weak defence! Kageyama would surely laugh at him. What kind of man was he that couldn't even put up a fight? Boiling over in the sound of the other youth's mocking laugh inside his head, Ukiya Shun hollered savagely and charged. His eyes glowed in rings of electric blue, greatly frightening poor Feye as he recklessly threw his Gate wide open and made super-charged missiles of first himself, then whatever Invaders he'd sent flying through it.

All the world became a blur, moving along in super-speed, the air cackling on his skin.

* * *

**Author's Ramblings  
**"Wynken, Blynken and Nod" are from a Dutch lullaby. A copy of the original rhyme can be found  
I was wondering if I should explain each chapter's titles... This chapter's is a reference to Peter Pan, where he flew home once when he missed his Mother, and discovered that his parents have had a new baby and forgotten all about him.  
_Ningyou_, used to describe Kaika, means "doll".

In other worlds... I'm stupid. I lack discipline ;-; gomen... ... as you can see issue 8 (chapter 7) has been rewritten.  
is working on issue number 9 now...  
this indent thing is driving me crazy ;; and why're all my extended spaces and underscores missing? ;-;  
I hate HR tags they don't look as cool as asterisks... ;-;


	9. Cadenza Cantata: Rites of the Living, Ri...

**GateKeepers Encore**

**Cadenza Cantata: Rites for the Living, Rites for the Dead**

_1945, the end of the Second World War. The world is on its way to recovery from the war, into much economic progress and prosperity. However, wriggling in the dark, unknown to anyone, an enemy emerges; Invaders, that can only be defeated by a power from other dimensions known as "Gates" wielded by people known as the Gatekeepers. An underground organization was formed as a world-wide defence network._

_They are AEGIS._

_In such times of new uncertainties and constant changes, they are the divine shield against the hand of those that threaten the people._

_By 1959, the Far East branch was established in Japan with a total of seven active Gatekeepers in two teams and when the Kikai-Shogun began his march to conquer the world, Japan was her first line of defence. The alpha team Captain, code-named "Angel", went into a rampage and his campaign never took off. Kikai-Shogun fled, grievously injured, his army devoured, in a single strike. Such was the power of the Gate of Genocide._

_It was another two days before the tragedy would come to an end. The AEGIS Far East Branch was ordered to search and destroy, an order Magus and Elysia, her team-mates, could not accept. The three had come to be as sisters, being war orphans rescued and adopted by AEGIS. Still, despite their refusal to comply, they were the only ones who dared approach when they found Angel._

_Their intention was to capture and that became their undoing. Moments later, AEGIS troops witnessed the end as the Gatekeeper Angel was consumed by her own Gate._

Blip... ...

...... Blip

--v--

I stood by and watched them disappear, those mere children. She gave me her handkerchief for spilling coffee on me at the hospital. Her handkerchief, that silly child. What am I to do with it? How has she expected me to give it back to her? Her childish innocence had not considered this. Asagiri Reiko, I admire you. You are able to do whatever you want with little or no thought to the consequence, a free agent of your free will, able to be completely honest to, with, and about everything. You alone afford the leisure to stop and say: It was my fault. I can't go on.

Every time I look in the mirror, the lines on my face get clearer. The past is gone, you've got to move on; isn't that the way things go? Everybody has their dues to pay. The fallen merely paid theirs... So why does it feel as though they have footed mine as well? And does it matter? We will become dust, nothing to nothing, forgotten on the wild wind. Already I am nothing, ordered to bury my identity, change my existence; half my life is nothing more than shredded pages, all my memories are of someone else's sin. My companions have long since been gone, quietly forgotten. And so, I am nothing, left with nothing. I am Kaonashi, the faceless spirit.

I will always be here; that is my mission, my purpose for living. Is that enough? It is enough.

It has to be.

--v--

... ... _Blip_

_Blip ... ..._

"Ruriko!!"

She couldn't see at first what had the Captain so worked up, since his tattered, scorched and blood-soaked uniform blocked her view, but it couldn't be good. She was on her last legs, only the need to survive kept her on her feet, yet despite that, she found it in herself somewhere to pull up her last power, another summon for her fiery Gate.

The others... she had no idea where they were in the swarming mass of enmity, or how they were holding up. She gritted her teeth, keeping her back board-stiff with Chinese pride, the bright red glittering weakly around her fingertips, her body screaming, wondering if this was what Shun was going through now, wondering if she would rip into a million pieces supporting this effort...

_Blip ... ..._

"The evidence against her case is very strong, you understand, and these are serious allegations that have been made, that cannot be dismissed simply with a vouch for her character."

"De... demo... "

"I'm sorry, Ochiai-san, you don't seem to grasp the enormity of this trial. She has actively and directly placed several officers of the Aegis organization, her own team mates, even, in dire risk. Allow me to remind you that members of your team, even now, lay in intensive care with slim chances of survival. The precedence for this is life imprisonment and exile, failing death."

"Fa... Failing death?"

"Well, yes. In the event we are unable to destroy her, we will employ other methods of containment."

"Has the defendant anything to add to the Court's account?"

---

"_NO!!!! Rurippe!!!!"_

The terrible sound lingered in her ears, of Shun screaming. It was a broken sound, like the death-rattle of some awful creature. She was frightened like she had never been before – not from the sound – but the numbness in her legs. What was wrong with them? She tried to twist... to wriggle around and feel about, but she was wedged tight and it was dark.

She whimpered, listening out for a response, someone, something, that could tell her everything is okay. That things are going to be all right. She quivered, and realised it was a shiver. The shiver continued into her gut, and then she was crying, alone in the dark and unable to help herself. And then, to cover the muffled sounds of the world caving in around her, Kaoru screamed and brawled.

... blip...

He screamed, he roared, he screeched, and the earth ricocheted with him, all the raw power of his Gate ripping through his body, through the parched, torn ground, rampaging across everything in its path until it eventually exhausted itself far away from its epicentre. The city trembled. Thankfully, the cowering towers held. So, miraculously, did his abused skin.

Primal force drove him, bloody and bloodthirsty, when he fell upon the Invasion. Or perhaps, he was still, and the world threw itself against him, searing into white-blue nothingness, into black, into void.

blip.

---

"It is clear the girl has nothing to say for herself. She knows it for herself! This trial which you have insisted on holding is nothing more than a drama. Let her be taken away and never spoken of again!"

"Defendant?"

"... ..."

"Very well. A verdict has been reached and the motion been passed. Take her away, gentlemen. Let her be dealt with."

......... beeeep.

--v--

"_Is it worth it to fight so hard, to act so tough? Is it necessary? Don't forget you are only mortal, only a child."_

--v--

The vision of Ikusawa Ruriko whipping round, beautifully terrible, a lady of grace and poise in an aura of awesome power had burnt into her mind.

The field laying around her dead and wasted, the familiar, cheerful yellow ribbon fluttering silently in an unfelt wind, mocking. Her posture was serene, her movements surreal, and her eyes were dark and terrible, flashing, as she spoke in calm, dead tones, commanding the cold cycling rings of a black gate.

"Rurippe ja nai." — Not Ruriko.

Her voice at that moment, so cold and adult, so frightfully hollow, haunted Reiko as she hiked through the cemetery after Shun and Megane.

The Pink Lady had given them directions, but would not go with them. Her place was in the school. They were surprised to find that there was no special cemetery for AEGIS personnel. The confidentiality of their organization prevented this. Many lay amongst their fellow men, mere numbers on a scrap of paper. In death, there were no secrets, no alliances, no allegiance. In death, they were their own.

"So... This is what happens when we go."  
And Shun realised suddenly how they were ever able to afford his father's funeral.

--v--

"Hello, can I help you?" There was something mystical about two ladies driving up to your gas-pump at sunset in a blue Cadillac, especially these two ladies.

The sweet, child-like passenger smiled and all his weariness seeped away.

"The Special, please."

The Special? – AEGIS?  
She flashed a card bearing the relevant emblem. The young man sketched an awkward salute and the code sign, then fumbled at the secret switch. She waved him good-bye as the car sank out of sight and he sighed happily. An AEGIS agent! That means he'll probably see more of her. Good. He would like that very much.

"You're terrible." The driver commented blandly when they were alone.  
"What? He was rather sweet." Kaika smiled, all pleased with herself, to her companion's annoyance.  
"And at least a decade younger than you are."  
"Love cannot be bound by age my dear." She smiled. The AEGIS base flashed past their windows as the car descended deep underground, winking coldly. Koto sighed.

--v--

Three markers stood alone, set apart from the rest on a private lot. Three perfect granite boulders, simple and dignified, and a little bit mystical. These were the empty graves of the three Gatekeepers lost to the Gate of Genocide, bearing little inscription save their names followed by the Greek symbol for the Sun (a circle with a spot in its heart) and the year.

Rakujin Kaika  
¤  
1959

Senori Chie  
¤  
1959

Sasuke Koto  
¤  
1959

A silken length of ritual rope adorned the centre rock, marking it as sacred, or a sign that a vengeful spirit had been put to rest here.

Megane struggled to keep his balance under Shun's weight. He stood there for long moments, in silence. The plot was on a low rise, and as he looked around, he realised that he had a clear view of the other AEGIS Gatekeepers' graves. Even his father's.

"The Angel, Magus and Elysia watch over us as we lay to rest here..." Reiko said softly, the breeze tugging through her straw-coloured hair.

"We are not dead, Asagiri." Shun replied curtly. Though their losses were great, they were not dead yet. The score will be settled. Kageyama. The two Dark Gatekeepers. They will pay. His sullenness disturbed Reiko.

"I'm going home... I... promised to uh... do something for the housekeeper _imasuu_..." She mumbled quickly and started to walk away, feeling a very different person.

She left Shun and Megane alone, as well as a single, perfect Japanese Rose on the middle marker for Senori Chie, whose meaning was "a sad and beautiful death".

--v--

They placed Feye in a containment facility pending her transportation. They could have saved on the security since the prodigy Gatekeeper has neither done nor said anything since they retrieved her from the Disaster Site. The execution was to be held at the World Headquarters of AEGIS in North America as soon as possible, with no possibility of appeal.

Shanghai expressed deep regrets and gave its best wishes to a speedy resolution. She was denied visitors.

--v--

"Ochiai-san, I have decided... ... Ochiai-san, I'm sorry but my parents... ... Ochiai-san, since there are no... ..."

Reiko put down her hairbrush and stared at herself in the dresser mirror for long hard moments, trying to find the best way, the perfect expression, to tell Ochiai-san, the unconscious Shirei and everyone else how she felt and of her decision to leave Tategami High School; more importantly, Aegis.

She did not know what to make to everything, of herself. She recognised a tiny, treacherous voice in her heart, that she was more of a liability than asset. That she was dangerous to the team and everyone else besides. That things might have been different if she had been someone else. She was weak and useless, and she was weak and useless by her own choice and accord.

She was confused. The changes that were happening frightened her. It was Shirei, and the Negative Gatekeepers, and now Shun and Kaoru and Bancho and... Feye. And the Invaders. There are no more Invaders, they had said. She wasn't sure what happened, but it appeared that Feye had burnt everything and accidentally microwaved Kaoru, Shun and Bancho to make sure. Or it could have been Shun, vaporising everything he touched. She could not be sure.

They said that now, there really are no more Invaders in Japan. Did this mean no more need for Gatekeepers as well?

She did not know how to give up her powers. Indeed, she didn't seem to be very useful for anything at all if not for her Gate. She would wrap it up in a pretty box and nice wrapping paper and a beautiful ribbon, if she could, and present it to someone better, someone else.

She did not fit in. She had always known this. Behind her soft-spoken, always-dreaming self, Reiko was not dumb. She had trouble keeping her mind focused on the Outside, where everyone else lives, because she could not help averting her gaze from its perversions. Deep within herself, she simply cannot understand how anyone could stand it. She craved the magic of wands and fairy castles, magic without consequence, the only solution for a broken world that did not come with a price.

This was childish, innocent, Reiko-like. Deep within herself, this was the Truth of Self she had woven for herself. And the Reiko-who-was-not-Reiko saw that it was good.

She would, if she knew how, wrap it all up in a pretty box with nice dazzling wrapping paper and a beautiful silken ribbon, soft as a dream, and present it to someone more _real_, someone braver.

* * *

**Author's Ramblings:  
Cadenza**: An extended solo passage, usually near the end, improvised by the performer, sometimes written out by the composer.  
**Cantata**: A short lyric form dealing with either secular or sacred subjects


End file.
